"Guys and Dolls," one of Broadway's most enduring hits, is getting another go round next week at the Hollywood Bowl with a cast that is starry and a little quirky.  Among the biggest surprises is Jessica Biel, alumna of "Seventh Heaven" and Maxim magazine, singing show tunes as Salvation Army missionary Sarah Brown.

She is playing opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell, who adds Sky Masterson to his collection of leading roles. He has already starred in "Ragtime," which played in Los Angeles in 1997, "Kiss Me Kate," "Man of La Mancha," "South Pacific" and "Les Miserables" -- the last two at the Hollywood Bowl.

In a phone interview earlier this month, Mitchell said his take on Sky wouldn't take shape until he began working with Biel. Rehearsals started this week. "I'll be bouncing a lot off of her energy and seeing where she is. ... My process during rehearsal is going to be getting a real good chemistry going with her."

The other leads are Scott Bakula ("Quantum Leap") as Nathan Detroit, Ellen Greene ("Little Shop of Horrors") as the showgirl Miss Adelaide and Beau Bridges as Sarah's Uncle Arvide.
"With a cast like that, you're 50 percent there," said choreographer Donna McKechnie, who won a Tony Award as Cassie in the original production of "A Chorus Line.

She has a link to the creators of "Guys and Dolls." Her first Broadway show was "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," with the same director, Abe Burrows, and composer, Frank Loesser.  "I felt very close to all of their work," she said in a phone interview. "There's a great love and affection for the material."

Among her tasks was to make sure "Guys and Dolls" has a prestigious chorus line of its own. Her "Hot Box Girls" include Sandahl Bergman, who starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Conan the Barbarian," Valarie Pettiford from "Chicago" and "Fosse," and Jane Lanier from "Jerome Robbins' Broadway."

"I adore them," she said. "They're just iconic on Broadway. ... They're perfect for the era. Richard (Jay Thomas, the director) set me in motion for who to think about. He said, 'I don't want these little, skinny twenty-somethings. I want women.' "

Neither McKechnie nor Mitchell seemed daunted by the size of the 17,376-seat bowl, although McKechnie said dance space would be squeezed by risers in front of the orchestra.  "Even though it says, 'in concert,' all the production numbers are fully realized."  Mitchell said he has become comfortable there. "I think the challenges are more for the technicians than the performers. I've performed there six or seven or eight times. ... I can just sing and do my usual thing, and it's set up very nicely."