Who’d have thought that this season’s smash hit musical would be a show that’s nearly half a century old!
GUYS AND DOLLS which many people, including me, consider one of the greatest musicals ever written, has been constantly revived all over the world in major, community and school productions ever since its Broadway première in 1950.
It’s the story of how two gamblers end up married to their sweethearts, the humour and characters are irresistible and the songs are guaranteed show stoppers that raise the roof in whatever theatre they’re performed especially SIT DOWN YOU’RE ROCKING THE BOAT and LUCK BE A LADY TONIGHT. Love songs like I’VE NEVER BEEN IN LOVE BEFORE and I’LL KNOW WHEN MY LOVE COMES ALONG will melt your heart.
The latest major UK revival launched at the Chichester Festival Theatre, transferred to the Savoy Theatre in the West End and has proved so popular that it’s to moving to the Phoenix Theatre with a new cast whilst a replica production tours the UK. This is so unusual I don’t recall it ever happening before.
The new leading actors for London are multiple Olivier Award-winning actress Samantha Spiro (Hello Dolly) as Miss Adelaide, Richard Kind (Inside Out, Spin City) as Nathan Detroit and Oliver Tompsett (Wicked) as Sky Masterson. Siubhan Harrison will continue as Sarah Brown, as will Gavin Spokes as Nicely Nicely Johnson. Completing the new cast at the Phoenix are Billy Boyle as Arvide and Jason Pennycooke as Benny.
The rest of the cast that transfer from the Savoy Theatre are: Lucy Jane Adcock, Abigail Brodie, Cornelius Clarke, Momar Diagne, Lavinia Fitzpatrick, Lorna Gale, Nic Greenshields, Selina Hamilton, Frankie Jenna, Alec Mann, Jacob Maynard, Genevieve Nicole, William Oxborrow, Max Parker, Carl Patrick, James Revell, Giovanni Spano, Jonathan Stewart, Lucie Mae Sumner and Liam Wrate.
Catch them at the Phoenix Theatre until October 2016.
Satire and sketch comedy was a vital part of West End theatre in the 1960’s but we don’t see a great deal of it these days so I was surprised to hear that veteran director Max Stafford-Clark still regards it as “a pungent corrective to political pomposity and ambition.”