I have never seen ‘Guys and Dolls‘ before, so I came to the Bridge Theatre with an open mind and eagerness to be swept away into 50’s New York (checks wikipedia phew yes 50’s). And swept away I was fairly quickly, on top of the fun hot dog and pretzel bar in the lobby there were audience members dressed the part with hair dos of the period and suits that looked as if they concealed their own set of unmarked crap (name of the game, I’m not being mean) dice. On top of this, the walk to my seat took me through a gaggle of punters and actors mingling in the centre of the theatre. The show was set in the round and where the stage should have been, to one connecting the dots, was not set at all save for some light up signs dangling from the ceiling and a couple little diner tables. This had me slightly bemused, I thought this was a musical, big and brash and with lots of exci-… oh wait the floor is rising. Oh I see.

In the overture I realised that I knew more about Guys and Dolls than I thought (which is to say, nothing) when the instrumental to ‘Luck Be A Lady’ started to play. When I pointed this out to my theatre going companion, feigning to be a musical-phile, I was informed that Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat was also in this show, so needless to say I was now even more seated than I already was having taken my chair to at the very least get context on these songs I was aware of. Unfortunately I can’t say that there were any other songs in this musical of note, if you played any one of them to me now I’d go: “oh yeah, kind of remember that one, I mean sort of I do.” And especially since the two songs I knew were in the second half I did find myself wanting and waiting for the show to get to them.

BUT I did enjoy the show for its performances, yes whilst I may sneer at yawn-worthy song I will always lean forward in admiration of the performances in this show. The stand outs of course being Timmika Ramsay as Adelaide: a powerful dancer and long time fiance of the protagonist, whose voice and movements and stage presence were the shining light of every scene they were in and you could see the rest of the cast having to give it their all to try and catch up. And George Ioannides as Sky Masterson the smooth talking, jet setting, reformed sinner who puts his money where his mouth is. Every time they were on stage I wanted the scenes to go on forever. Especially as Masterson was the B plot.

The B plot was bizarre in that you’d think it wouldn’t be the B plot, maybe you wouldn’t call it the B plot, maybe I’m saying B plot too much but the Havana sequence was the most captivating section of the show (save for the somewhat strange segment where it’s alluded that Sky is maybe bisexual and dancing with some men in a gay bar but who are all shortly afterwards beaten within an inch of their lives and dispatched by the violent drunk Sarah Brown). Ioannides is such a tremendous performer and his duets with Gina Beck, who played the afore-parenthesised belligerent Sarah Brown, are a thing to behold. He can really sing, and you’d notice if he couldn’t because Beck’s operatic voice consistently left me gagged.

The costumes were really good for a period piece and this should go without saying, the only reason I’d bring this up is for the sections where the costumes aren’t so accurate. Like with Adelaide’s burlesque performance and the Havana gay bar (just quickly again, there is a section in this show where ALL the gay characters in this show are punched and kicked and thrown off stage to avoid offending the insecure and aggressive heterosexual woman).

I enjoyed the show, don’t get me wrong but from speaking with my lovely companion there had been changes from the original source material, I can’t quote exactly what those are (bite me) but it’s one of those shows where you watch and it sort of makes sense. The last thing I’ll say is that the show kind of just ends, after all the build up of the first half, events are sort of rushed through in the second and in true farcical Shakespearean fashion it ends with a wedding, very quickly. I thought there was a set up for a villain, like y’know a proper one, not just the policeman, but no it’s all pretty hunky dory and it ends. So, if you’re looking for a complex structured story then maybe this isn’t the show for you, but if you want to have a glass of Rosé that you spill on the audience beneath you whilst you have a sing-along to your favourite musical theatre numbers, head on down to the Bridge Theatre!

⭐️⭐️⭐️