History Theatre / GuysAndDolls

** Of the four leads, Adelaide is the only one whose full name we never hear. Of course, given the finale is at her wedding, it's clearly about to become, or depending on if the production stages the wedding during the music break, ''does'' become Adelaide Detroit. The fact that Adelaide and other character don't go around mentioning her last name makes sense, given she likely doesn't want to be reminded of how long she's waiting to get married.

* OpinionChangingDream: During the scene when the gamblers are attending the revival at the Save-A-Soul mission because Sky won a bet, Nicely-Nicely Johnson recounts a dream he had that turned him from his wild gambling ways, "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat". The trope is subverted, in that Nicely didn't change his ways and may not (probably didn't, in fact) even have such a dream at all. In the movie he's being sincere and he's the one who overtly joins the mission instead of Sky.

** Written in the 1950s, gambling is portrayed not just as illegal but as synonymous with sin, though it never takes itself too seriously. Nathan Detroit's continued devotion to running his [[IllegalGamblingDen floating crap game]] keeps him from marrying Adelaide, his fiancé of 14 years, until he calls it quits for good at the end. Sky Masterson initially believes that no long-term relationship can make him feel as good as winning at craps can until he falls for Sarah Brown, and Sarah, despite being attracted to Sky, is repulsed by his gambling as a [[ChurchLady Save-a-Soul missionary]]. However, marriage itself is portrayed as a gamble worth taking, and Sky winning a crap game helps save Sarah's branch of the Save-A-Soul Mission, so the message is mixed.

** Lieutenant Brannigan is heavily implied [[DirtyCop to have previously been on Nathan's payroll]] before the events of the show where he acts as a HeroAntagonist. It's never made clear what caused his falling out with Nathan, whether it was due to any actual sense of morality, or just other factors which have now caused him to try to bring Detroit down.
* HeelFaceTurn: The missionaries are trying to pull these to the general public to no avail. Even in the end when Sky has brought the gamblers to their mission, they clearly have no interest in actually commuting to the cause, though that doesn't stop Nicely from singing a {{Showstopper}} about doing so. We do get more genuine examples in Sky and Nathan, as Sarah and Adelaide decide to enforce this trope after marrying. We get to see these in the final scene.

* {{Hypochondria}}: Nathan Detroit's fiancee Adelaide is a hypochondriac because of their prolonged engagement, as shown in the song "Adelaide's Lament."
* ICanChangeMyBeloved: "Marry the Man Today" ("and change his ways tomorrow!") is all about Adelaide and Sarah discussing the possibility of changing their love interests after marriage, rather than waiting for them to clean up before getting married. Indeed, it seems to work out well enough for Sarah, and Adelaide is clearly making great process even before he wedding is done. However, some productions cut this number for ValuesDissonance reasons.

* BigBadWannabe: [[TheBigGuy Big Jule]] is the closest thing the show has to one, as he keeps the crap game going for over twenty four hours in order to cheat his way into stealing everybody's money. However, he can only take their money by cheating, as he's actually a terrible gambler who gets cleaned out. And the only reason he can even cheat anyone is because of the physical threat he poses. [[TheWorfEffect When Sky arrives, he makes short work of Big Jule]], [[CurbStompBattle punching him out and disarming him]], at which point [[HazyFeelTurn he completely exits the antagonist position]], and gets strung along into helping Sky and Sarah.