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With thanks to Rachel - Dariusmusic -

 

High-rollers put on big performance

MARTIN LENON

 

Guys and Dolls ****

Playhouse

 

The Forties was an incredible era. The biggest war in history had ended, teenagers were about to be invented and rock 'n' roll was just around the corner. People were obviously ready to party like it was 1949.

 

The years rolled back again last night at The Playhouse, as the new and grand scale production of Guys and Dolls hit the Capital.

 

The brilliant and lavish New York cityscape drew the audience in to a world of crapshoots, fast living and of course, at the heart of it all, the guys and dolls themselves.

 

Based on a short story by Damon Runyon, The Idyll Of Miss Sarah Brown, the show first performed in 1950 in the only place it could have - Broadway. Several adaptations followed including the famous 1955 film starring, among others, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Jean Simmons in the lead roles. Since then dozens of big names have appeared in a great many different revivals of the piece, including Patrick Swayze, Bob Hoskins, Don Johnson and even Ewan MacGregor.

 

The show itself is and was big, brash and fun. A little wordy compared to other musicals perhaps, but that was no bad thing. There was a lot of solid, romantic and funny story to tell, after all. Two stories, in fact, interwoven around one another: On the one hand, there was the tale of Nathan Detroit, played by a perfectly cast Shaun Williamson of EastEnders fame, who operated an illegal "floating craps game", always trying to keep one step ahead of the law. With a bunch of high-rollers newly arrived in town, he needed to find a venue for a huge game, and having found a place, then needed a thousand dollars as a deposit - money he didn't have.

 

Enter Sky Masterton, a career gambler played worryingly well by Pop Idol star, Darius Danesh. Detroit bets Masterton that he can't make the next girl he sees agree to a date with him, guaranteeing the gangster his deposit money. However, unfortunately for Detroit, Masterton met Missionary Sarah Brown and by a series of ruses, lies and skilful persuasion, gets her to 'agree' to the date. Now Detroit has to find the gambler's winnings as well as the deposit.

 

Against the odds and her normally conventional instincts, Brown begins to fall for Masterton. To add more to the pot, Detroit's long-suffering fiance, nightclub singer Miss Adelaide leaves him, both because of his lack of commitment and because of his lying. Clearly, Runyon didn't like to make things easy for his characters.

 

As you might expect, there's a happy ending, but not before the cast had the chance to strut their stuff in the fabulous musical numbers, including the unforgettable Luck Be A Lady and Sit Down You're Rockin' The Boat. The ensemble dazzled but naturally the stars garnered the lion's share of the applause, and rightly so, for an outstanding performance. If there was a flaw, it was the ever present Noo Yawk accent that never manages to sound quite like Mary Beth Lacy, but always slips in anyway.

 

Otherwise, this was a first class production that deserves full houses every night.

 

Run ends June 23

 

 

 

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I think it means they begrudge praising him as they have always called him reject or flop in the past. Nice to see them having to eat humble pie.
yes, it tends to stick in their gullets when they have to admit he is good !! they didnt come out with some stupid comments about him being too tall like the other one, in a desperate attempt to come up with someting negative as they couldnt fault his performance.

It is a very strange phrase. I'll have to mull it over but initially, I think it's probably positive.

 

It's a great resume of the show but I think it's a shame that only the two stars above the title are given any critique.

 

Perhaps he did it that way because there's so much interaction in Guys and Dolls with the secondary characters and lots of almost full company set pieces and one would need to list many more people.

 

I think Louise is absolutely amazing. Lynsey plays Miss Adelaide so well but I don't find myself caring about the character really and the very funny song lyrics don't have the same impact when you've heard them before. Another of my favourites is Christian Patterson as Nicely Nicely. The real Benny Southstreet slightly disappointed me. He played him with more slapstick than his understudy. I love Big Julee's voice. Uncle Arvide's Irish sounding solo is well sung. I wonder why it was left out of the movie.

 

Goodness me. It's a Darius love-in at the Scotsman offices this week. We better enjoy it while we can.

 

There's another review in this morning's paper. The show gets heaps of praise from the score, to the book, to the sets, the choreography, the production, the orchestra and the conductor and...............

oh yes, one of the cast gets a special mention - Darius Danesh

 

Also on .net, Claire has just posted a nice interview which appeared in today's paper

 

I'll try to bring the links over.

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