Hot Ticket

In the Broadway jargon it speaks so well, Guys and Dolls (TIME, Dec. 4) is now "the hottest ticket in town." (Runners-up: South Pacific, Call Me Madam). Because 50 performances of the hit musical were sold out to theater parties before it opened, even the Manhattan ticket brokers are having a hard time getting tickets for Guys and Dolls; for once, they are not much better off than the ordinary playgoer. Last week, to meet the demand, the show's producers went to an extreme that is unprecedented on Broadway: they began selling tickets as far as a full year in advance.

This shrewd policy, enabling them to strike while the ticket is hot, points up the arrival of Cy Feuer, 40, and Ernest H. Martin, 31, in the first rank of theatrical producers. Feuer, who once headed a movie studio's music department, and Martin, a onetime radio executive, have now produced two shows, and both turned out to be hits. They launched their partnership by starring Ray Bolger in 1948's Where's Charley? (792 performances), which is currently enjoying a profitable return engagement.

Unlike many producers who read scripts until they find one they like, Feuer & Martin conceived the idea for the Bolger show (a musical version of Charley's Aunt), built it from the ground up. Inspired by the late Damon Runyon's raffish fables, they did the same with Guys and Dolls. Except for Pat Rooney Sr., who last appeared in a Manhattan playhouse in 1918, none of the new show's principals has ever played in a Broadway musical before. But Guys and Dolls, three months old, will recoup its $177,000 investment before the end of March, send out a touring company this summer. Advance sale at week's end: $625,000.

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