Picture: Roy Tan
Guys and Dolls was performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
The legendary Royal Albert Hall turned into musical comedy heaven for a weekend. Though the venue will never be the ideal venue for musical theatre, and there have been better productions lately of Guys and Dolls (notably at Kilworth House last summer), this concert version was a deserved success with packed audiences for the three eagerly-awaited performances.
The omission of the Havana dance sequence and the lack of dancing in the prologue made Act I look a little lacklustre but director/choreographer Stephen Mear and the large and spectacular ensemble more than made up for that in Act II with a showstopping Crapshooters’ Ballet well worthy of the Michael Kidd original.
‘Luck Be a Lady’ and ‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat’, with the great Clive Rowe repeating his portrayal of Nicely-Nicely Johnson from the legendary National Theatre revival, were two other impeccably choreographed highlights of this memorable evening.
Mear also did a good job in directing this semi-staged version which, despite some major cuts in the plot, could have done without the presence of a narrator, even though Stephen Mangan was a good choice.
The book of Guys and Dolls is a bit dated now, even among other Golden Age musicals, as it does not have the human and social resonance of Rodgers & Hammerstein classics nor the wit of a Kiss Me, Kate. As a result, I wasn’t so concerned about those cuts as they put the emphasis on the immortal Frank Loesser score, arguably the best of this neglected genius’ catalogue, enhanced by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra perfectly drilled by musical director James McKeown.
Being cases of stunt casting or not, Jason Manford as Nathan Detroit and Meow Meow as Miss Adelaide fully fitted the bill in the comedy department but didn’t demonstrate the musical ability of the other two leads, Adrian Lester as Sky Masterson and the excellent Lara Pulver as Sarah Brown.
Paul Nicholas and Sharon D Clarke, as Arvide Abernath and General Cartwright, completed the cast with class, but the real star of the evening, aside from the great orchestra, was the incredible dance ensemble among which leading men, such as Dan Burton doubling as Harry the Horse, could be spotted.
I am hoping Mear’s work here will be remembered for a future revival (he has actually already choreographed a full production in Milwaukee). In the meantime, this concert was another opportunity to have a classic musical revisited on a grand scale.
Patrick Honoré
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