Nicholas Hytner’s multi-award-winning immersive production of Guys & Dolls at London’s Bridge Theatre on 4 January 2025.
To mark the occasion, we here revisit our Five Questions With… interviews with cast members GINA BECK (Matilda; The Sound of Music; Show Boat; Wicked; The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables) as Sarah Brown and MICHAEL SIMKINS (John Gabriel Borkman; Backstairs Billy; The Unfriend; Fracked!; Yes, Prime Minister; Mamma Mia!) as Arvide Abernathy.
Five Questions With Gina Beck
How have you approached the character of Sarah Brown, is it a musical theatre role you hoped you might get the chance to play?
I’ve auditioned for it four times for different productions and always felt maybe I wasn’t quite right for it, I’m hoping I’ve been proved wrong!! The Sarah Brown that Nick Hytner and Celinde Schoenmaker created in this amazing production is a joy to play, so strong and determined but with such a chance for fun throughout.
What has it been like to join the company at the Bridge Theatre and become part of what is truly an immersive production?
Oh it’s been an absolute riot! The cast are incredible and the talent astounds me every show. The staging is something I’ve never experienced and proves to be such fun every night, once I got used to just how close they are! Also getting to start the Guys & Dolls journey with the wonderful Michael Simkins has been a dream come true.
How do you think this production of Guys & Dolls reinterprets or refreshes the classic story?
The story is as it is in the script but of course this production allows the audience into the action in a way that has never been done before. The casting is probably more diverse than it’s been previously too which I absolutely can’t imagine being any different now and the show would be so much less rich without it.
It’s fair to say you have played an impressive range of iconic roles in the world of musical theatre, can you talk about a particularly memorable performance or project in your career that has had a significant impact on you personally or professionally?
The day I met Daniel Evans for Show Boat at Sheffield Crucible changed my career and my life forever. It started years of collaboration with not only Daniel but the amazing musical supervisor of this show, Tom Brady. Two absolute wonders.
What advice would you give to aspiring musical theatre performers looking to break into the industry?
Just get as much experience as you possibly can when you’re young, join a choir, do your school plays, join the NYMT, get singing lessons. Spend all your free time doing it and then you’ll prove that you’ve got the commitment and the drive to succeed, it’s not a career to just fall in to!
Five Questions With Michael Simkins
What drew you to the role of Arvide Abernathy in Guys & Dolls?
The part and the production. Abernathy is a lovely role as he offers something other than the razzamatazz of the rest of the evening. He is tender, warm, wise and has a beautiful lilting song in the second half which provides a brief poignant interlude in amongst all the frenetic fun.
Arvide is a caring and wise character with a strong sense of morality but also has plenty of light-hearted moments.
Do you enjoy playing those different sides of him?
Very much. Abernathy may be in the Salvation Army but there is strong evidence in the way the part if written to suggest that he can handle himself on the streets. He can talk in the language of faith but also knows how to stand up to and swap wisecracks with the gamblers and dancing girls of Manhattan. It’s this combination that gives the part much of its humour and is great fun to play.
How do you think this immersive production of Guys & Dolls reinterprets or refreshes the classic story?
It allows the audience to be involved in New York street life rather than merely viewing it as spectators. The action swirls around them, with characters from the show popping up on their shoulders and interacting with them throughout the show. This has an electrifying effect as it’s never been done before in this particular musical. The success of this is born out at the end when the cast and audience join in dancing together on stage, everyone swirling together in latin rhythms and having a high old time. I think the audience feel like they’re very much part of it rather than all sitting in serried rows watching it from a distance. It really is something special.
You’ve had a varied career across theatre television, and film, during which you have regularly performed in musical theatre. What is it that you think is special about the genre?
Someone once defined musicals as ‘an engine for making happiness’. And that’s what musicals do. They tap straight into the emotions of the audience so that they feel the show as well as merely experiencing it. That connection is immediate. Noel Coward once said: ‘Funny how potent cheap music is.’ What he meant of course is that popular song – especially from the great American songbook such as in this show – instantly stir up deep emotion, laughter, pleasure, memory and longing.
Can you share an experience from your time in the theatre that has had a significant impact on you as an actor?
People who know me well will tell you that the greatest influence on my formative years was Gilbert and Sullivan. During my teens I thought of little else, and being in them and watching them at a young age instilled in me a love of theatre, of musical theatre in particular; while participating in them taught me so much about stagecraft, about humour, about creating roles and lifting them off the printed page into something three dimensional.
I may not listen to them as much as I once did nearly 50 years ago but I still regard the two collaborators as my most formative influence. I finally got my wish when a few years back I headlined a Friday Night is Music Night G&S Gala on Radio 2 from the stage of Chichester Festival Theatre, complete with full orchestra. And if I had to answer questions on the Savoy operas as my specialist subject in Mastermind I reckon I’d be in first place after round one (though maybe not after the General Knowledge section!!).
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