Like Camelot, Damon Runyon`s Broadway is a mythical place, mostly remembered for the 1950 musical comedy ”Guys and Dolls,” and a handful of
`30s and `40s movies (”Little Miss Marker,” ”The Big Street”). Once revered for his sentimental tales of gangsters and boxers, touts and showgirls, Runyon may be down these days but he`s not out, thanks to Jimmy Breslin and John Martello.
Breslin has written a new biography of Runyon, who died in 1946. Martello has exhumed the author`s more picaresque characters-Dave the Dude, Sam the Gonoph, Little Pinks, Gigolo Georgie (in white spats)-for ”Damon Runyon`s Tales of Broadway,” a one-man show playing way, way off Broadway, in a SoHo theater.
Born in the Bronx, Martello, 39, first read Runyon in high school, then picked up a volume of his stories in a used bookstore. ”It all came back to me,” he said, ”how rich it is.” So rich that Martello decided to mount a production at the Double Image Theater, where he`s artistic director.
Though antiquated, ”the humor still holds up wonderfully” for today`s audiences, said Martello, citing Runyon`s ”colorful use of the language.”
Written in the present tense, without contractions, the stories have an oddball charm, he said, quoting the opening line from ”Hold `Em Yale!” one of three stories in his performance: ”What I am doing in New Haven on the day of this very large football game between the Harvards and the Yales is something which calls for quite a lot of explanation.”
While Runyon`s characters may be lowlifes, they have ”a code of ethics and honor that seems to be lacking in contemporary society,” said Martello, who plans to take his show to Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles.
Along with the Breslin biography, Martello`s show may simply be an overture to a full-blown Runyon revival. Nathan Detroit, Sky Masterson, Sarah Brown, Miss Adelaide and the rest of Runyon`s celebrated cast of tinhorns are due back on Broadway next spring, for a revival of ”Guys and Dolls.”