Any audience would have understandably high expectations of a concert version of the hit Broadway comedy musical Guys and Dolls with a billing of the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Chorus directed by the renowned Richard Balcombe, narration by Dennis Waterman, and starring West End legend Ruthie Henshell.
Guys and Dolls is based on two short stories by Damon Runyon, The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown and Blood Pressure, first premiering on Broadway in 1950 and winning the Tony award for Best Musical before becoming a feature film in 1955 starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra.
Revived many times on the West End, this scaled down concert version runs at the Cadogan Hall for only five performances. Alas, the only outstanding element was the 20-piece orchestra with their toe-tappingly-infectious renditions of immortal melodies by Frank Loesser. With classic songs Luck Be A Lady, Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat, Take Back Your Mink, Sue Me and the title song, Guys and Dolls, the sound was disappointingly poor due to the singers’ microphone volume being turned up a few too many decibels and not helped by occasional interference caused by one of the chorus girl’s loose blonde hair tangling up with her mic. No doubt these technical hitches would have ironed out with a longer run.
Directed by Russell Labey, this Guys and Dolls has all the swagger you would expect from such a quality cast. Set in down town New York City, the heart of Times Square, and Cuba, this oddball comedy tells the story of gangsters, gamblers and molls, and opens with three small-time gamblers arguing over which horse to back in a race with the song Fugue for Tinhorns. It was great to see the acclaimed Graham Bickley starring as Nathan Detroit, one of the gamblers Sarah Brown, the no-nonsense Sergeant of a missionary played by Anna-Jane Casey, interrupts when she arrives with the Mission Band – encouraging the sinners to attend her prayer meetings.
Sarah later falls in love with the smooth, sharp-suited gambler Sky Masterson, wonderfully portrayed by Lance Ellington, who impresses her with his knowledge of the Bible and claims to want to change his ways. He continues to woo her by promising to bring 12 sinners to the Mission in exchange for her promising to have dinner with him. She reluctantly agrees, not realising he intends on having dinner in Cuba, and several Bacardi laced ‘milkshakes’ later, Sky has to contend with Sarah intoxicated and in amorous high spirits, singing If I Were a Bell.
Ruthie Henshall, oozing her usual charisma, made a dramatic entrance dressed in a dazzling silver sequin floor-length gown. She plays Adelaide with a screechy American accent; similar to the noise one imagines emanating from a Bronx alleycat. Adelaide is a nightclub singer suffering from a chronic cold, which she reads in a medical book, may be psychosomatic due to the fact she has been engaged to fiancé Nathan Detroit for 14 years! Desperate to forgo her apparently glamorous lifestyle in exchange for a little place in the country with a white picket fence, she shows Nathan the wedding veil she purchased three years ago and explains that her family already believe her to be married with five children. Detroit, who runs a travelling dice game, meanwhile contends with dodging the law – cop Dennis Waterman.
The show ends with Sarah and Adelaide commiserating about Sky and Nathan, singing Marry the Man Today, when both women end up shelving their plans to reform their men, resolving to marry them forthwith and alter their characters later. All ends happily when Adelaide and Nathan marry at the Mission now run by Sergeant Sarah and Brother Sky Masterson.
For more information about forthcoming concerts at Cadogan Hall, visit the website, or telephone 020 7730 4500.
