GUYS AND DOLLS, a landmark in American music theatre, first produced in New York in 1950, has first-rate songs by Frank Loesser and a first-rate book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. The script, sentimental and witty, is based on Damon Runyon’s The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown and the characters of Runyon’s short stories.
Nicholas Hytner’s excellent immersive production, which has been running at the Bridge Theatre for over a year, has a new cast and is on no account to be missed. Theatregoers have a choice. They can either be seated or they can stand where the stall seats used to be and promenade.
The stage is constantly being reconstructed. The staging is absolutely amazing. Mobile hydraulic platforms rise and fall to create new levels and new spaces, such as streets, bars, cabarets and mission halls. The quick changes are truly astounding and must have taken a lot of rehearsal to get so smooth and perfect.
The movement throughout is energising and fascinating to watch; and surprisingly, the standing audience, crowded together, marshalled by the stage management (dressed as police officers), do not distract. The actors and story-line are not upstaged by their presence.
Damon Runyon’s tales are satires on the low life of petty crooks in and around Broadway. The bums, broads, touts, pickpockets, showgirls, gangsters (many based on real-life gangsters whom Runyon knew personally) are immortalised by their whimsical nicknames and idiosyncratic language.
Nathan Detroit (Owain Arthur) runs the oldest established floating crap game in New York. In order to raise cash to book a venue, he bets Sky Masterson (George Ioannides) that he can’t seduce Sarah Brown, a salvation army missionary (Celinde Schoemaker).
Sky, who is called Sky because he is willing to bet all he has, manages to persuade Sarah to come with him to Havana by promising to bring a dozen genuine sinners to her Save-A-Soul Mission, which is in danger of being closed down through lack of attendance.
The actors have strong personalities. A high spot is Timmika Ramsay, a powerhouse as Nathan’s long-term fiancé singing, Take Back Your Mink, which is given the full raunchy striptease treatment. Celinde Schoemaker singing If I Were a Bell and George Ioannides singing I’ve Never Been in Love Before are charming and delightful. Owain Arthur and Timmika Ramsay are very funny and have a great time together and especially so in their duet, Sue Me.
Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat is one of the great Broadway show-stoppers and has fully rehearsed encores already built into the script! The cast, constantly alternating between sitting and standing, moving arms and hands, whilst remaining tightly knit within rows of chairs, are brilliantly choreographed by Arlene Phillips and James Cousins. The audience roared its approval.
I repeat Guys and Dolls is on no account to be missed. The run continues until August. For more information and tickets follow this link.
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