‘Guys and Dolls’ by Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows
16 May 2023
When Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr opened the Bridge Theatre, next to Tower Bridge in London, in 2017, they created a very flexible theatre space. This has provided the opportunity for Hytner and set designer Bunny Christie to develop some very innovative promenade productions. I really enjoyed watching live screenings of their promenade stagings of 'Julius Caesar' (reviewed here in April 2018) and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (reviewed here in October 2019). On Saturday we were at the Bridge Theatre to see Hytner’s new promenade production of ‘Guys and Dolls’ by Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows - though we opted to sit in the gallery, looking down at the performance rather than promenading. It was fascinating to watch the floor of the theatre, laid out as a New York street scene, gradually fill with hundreds of people as the audience wandered in. But the show becomes truly spectacular when the actors emerge from the crowd and large sections of the floor rise hydraulically to form small stages for each scene. An army of stewards constantly shuffle the crowd back, before the ground they have been standing on starts to move. And the lighting (by Paule Constable) shifts our attention to different parts of the arena as the story flows seamlessly across Bunny Christie’s constantly moving set. It’s a brilliantly slick theatrical experience. ‘Guys and Dolls’ is the Bridge Theatre’s first musical and it’s a triumph. As long-time readers may remember, ‘Guys and Dolls’ is one of my favourite musicals. I still treasure the memory of seeing the legendary National Theatre production in the early 1980s (with Lulu as Miss Adelaide). When we last saw a production of ‘Guys and Dolls’, at Milton Keynes Theatre (reviewed here in February 2007) I came to it with raised expectations and was a bit disappointed. But the Bridge Theatre performance has completely rekindled my enthusiasm for the show. ‘Guys and Dolls’ has some of the best songs of any musical and the script (in the style of Damon Runyon) is genuinely funny. There was some excellent singing - from Celinde Shoenmaker as Sara Brown, Andrew Sherwood as Sky Masterson and Cedric Neal as Nicely-Nicely Johnson - and Daniel Mays does a great comic turn as Nathan Detroit. Marisha Wallace, who has toured with Simply Red, Michael Ball & Alfie Boe, and Lisa Stansfield, brought a powerful soul voice to Miss Adelaide. And there was some great choreography by Arlene Phillips with James Cousins. It’s a wonderful musical party - with some brilliant additional interval performances. I came out beaming.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 11:22 am
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