Guys And Dolls (Bridge Theatre, London)
Rating: Still have it
Nicholas Hytner’s immersive revival of Frank Loesser’s glorious musical about illegal gamblers in 1930s New York has just been nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. It has also had some cast changes.
Timmika Ramsay is the new, full-throated and sassy Hot Box singer Miss Adelaide, and Owain Arthur joins the cast as her wedded fiance Nathan Detroit, giving a comically broad performance as he evades both his hot girl and the police while setting up an illegal craps game.
George Ioannides remains as a smooth Sky Masterson, with Celinde Schoenmaker continuing as Sarah Brown, the innocent Salvation Army girl who wants to save his soul but ends up being his puppet.
Theater production Guys and Dolls at The Bridge Theater 2024
The immersive reimagining of Frank Loesser’s glorious musical about illegal gamblers in 1930s New York
Pictured: Cast members performing in Nicholas Hytner’s Guys And Dolls at the Bridge Theatre
Pictures from the Guys and Dolls production
The show has lost some of its fizz in this iteration, especially in the first act. But it springs back to life in the second and remains a great night at the theatre
While all the principals sing beautifully, another newcomer deserves special mention, Jonathan Andrew Hume as Nicely-Nicely Johnson, who leads the cast in the showstopper Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat, which also – er, nicely-nicely – showcases the choreography of Arlene Phillips and James Cousins on Bunny Christie’s atmospheric set.
The show has lost some of its fizz in this iteration, especially in the first act. But it springs back to life in the second and remains a great night at the theatre.
The Duchess of Malfi (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe)
Rating: Should have been creepier
By Luke Jones
Guidance tells us that this play contains themes and scenes of incest, misogyny, infanticide, sex, violence, sexual violence, strangulation, murder, stage blood, weapons, knives and a partridge in a pear tree.
I took a seat in the Globe’s replica and candlelit Jacobean playhouse with my triggers nice and warned, but a somewhat clumsy evening ensued.
Our young widow, Duchess, decides to remarry and start a family, albeit in secret to avoid upsetting her scheming brothers. Alas, the plan unravels, disastrously, and her murder sets off a chain reaction of reprisals.
The play was written in 1614 for exactly the kind of dark, shadowy theater upon which the Wanamaker was modeled.
The Duchess of Malfi at Shakespeare’s Globe. The play was written in 1614 for exactly the kind of dark, shadowy theater upon which the Wanamaker was modeled
Guidance tells us that this play contains themes and scenes of incest, misogyny, infanticide, sex, violence, sexual violence, strangulation, murder, stage blood, guns, knives and a partridge in a pear tree
But the 2024 version felt like promising drama students in their final year’s show: incredibly clear (the text is even projected onto the set as we walk) but immobile
In fact, a devastatingly creepy production starring Gemma Arterton opened this copy when its ribbons were cut in 2014.
But the 2024 version felt like promising drama students in their last year’s show: incredibly clear (the text is even projected onto the set as we walk) but unmoving.
Director Rachael Bagshaw stirs up the hilarity, which makes the tragedy almost laughable when it finally arrives.
Francesca Mills, as the titular Duchess, is either all winks and smiles or wild screaming despair. I didn’t buy one second of it.
Likewise, her evil brother Ferdinand, played by Oliver Johnstone, speaks ably, but his descent into madness fools no one.
We also have odd additions to the text: a subtle reference to Secretary of State James Cleverly and a Botox gag that rang loudest.
Some break through with impactful swings. Arthur Hughes, back from his acclaimed performance as Richard III at the RSC, is the hapless Bosola, cutting out much of the misery with touching inner conflicts.
But it’s a disappointment for such a juicy game at home. ‘I consider this world a boring theatre,’ we are told at one point. Too true.