You are likely to hear it every night about 10 o'clock at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre — the rustling of programs as the audience looks to see who is the prodigiously talented, portly actor playing Nicely-Nicely Johnson, who has stopped the production of Guys & Dolls in its tracks with his holy roller gospel rendition of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."

The name is Richard Ruiz and if no one is currently writing a musical version of The Honeymooners for him, that would be a shame. Certainly he is the standout in an otherwise muted and uneven production of the 1950 Frank Loesser-Abe Burrows musical based on the beloved Times Square underworld characters of Damon Runyon.

They wrote what is generally acknowledged as a near-perfect musical comedy, but a hard one to get right. It contains four stellar leading roles that need to be equally strong for the evening to click and remain in balance. At the Maltz, the score is only two out of four, plus bonus points for Ruiz.

Guys & Dolls is the story of two romantic couples. There is inveterate gambler Sky Masterson (Michael Gruber) and the staid Save-a-Soul Mission soldier Sarah Brown (Alison Walla) whom he pursues. And there is crap-game entrepreneur Nathan Detroit (Andrew Polk) and his nightclub entertainer fiancée of 14 long years, adenoidal Miss Adelaide (Tia Speros).

They are classic musical theater types — one standard pair of would-be lovers and the other more broadly comic. They are linked by a bet between the two guys over whether Sky can persuade Sarah to fly with him to Havana. If Nathan wins, he can afford to host a high-stakes floating crap game and perhaps finally marry Adelaide with the proceeds.

Harkening back to the Maltz's first full production, a small-cast version of My Fair Lady in 2004, director-choreographer Daniel Pelzig whittles the Guys & Dolls company down to 14 performers, many of whom double and triple in roles. The shrinkage is less damaging than you might think, with only the dance numbers feeling underpopulated.

Certainly Speros — who played Adelaide in a previous Long Wharf Theatre production that Pelzig choreographed — is an asset. She knows her way around a punch line, is endearingly ditsy, yet maintains enough of a touch with reality to make us care about her marital plight. And she does not disappoint with her fabled lament of psychosomatic medical woes. Gruber may be too much of a straight arrow as Masterson, but he has a mellow, creamy vocal style that trumps any other misgivings.

Polk, on the other hand, fumbles many of Nathan's surefire gags and only really asserts himself in his second act duet with Speros, Sue Me. Still, he is preferable to the bland and overly stiff Walla, who never really unwinds in the Havana sequence and rarely shows the warmth hiding beneath her missionary armor.

So it is a hit-and-miss evening, but nothing could stop Loesser's score, a treasure chest of character-laden songs, witty specialty numbers and heart-on-his-sleeve love ballads. To steal just one of his song titles, more I cannot wish you.

Michael Raiford's set design is full of ideas, some of which are hard to comprehend. I have never seen the show situated before on the loading dock outside the Hot Box Revue, but the transition to the underground sewer crap game is a marvel. Maybe he has some post-modern symbolism in mind with the constant wheeling on of a light bulb-outlined upward arrow and another facing in the opposite direction suspended from the ceiling.

But they only serve to keep reminding us how up and down this Guys & Dolls production is.