Guys & Dolls

I recently went to see this Donmar Warehouse Production at the Piccadilly Theatre, having only seen the film before many years ago. The story is pretty straightforward set around gamblers Sky Masterson (ballet dancer Adam Cooper) and Nathan Detroit (Man Behaving Badly’s Neil Morrissey) in Manhattan and their ‘dolls’. Nathan’s long-time (and ling-suffering) fiancé Miss Adelaide (established West End performer Sally Ann Triplett) sings and dances in the Hot Box bar and has been lying to her mother about already being married to Nathan. Whilst trying to keep his promise to Miss Adelaide that he’ll stop gambling Nathan sets up one last dice game and gets Sky involved in funding the venture by betting him that he couldn’t get a dinner date with a woman of Nathan’s choice. Nathan chooses missionary Sarah Brown (played by relative newcomer Kelly Price) and thereby the show gets going.

Guys and Dolls does not have as many big show-stopping numbers as some of the other big West End/Broadway shows, the title song and ‘If I Were A Bell’ were the most memorable from the first half, and ‘Luck Be A Lady’ and ‘Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat’ in the second half.

The performances were all very good. I expected Adam Cooper to be able to dance and he also had a good voice. Neil Morrissey’s strength lay not in his voice or slightly gangly dancing but in the comic timing he brought to the role. In fact all the cast members did an excellent job of the comedic and musical parts of their roles and I was also especially impressed with Kelly Price who graduated from stage school only two years ago. The supporting cast were also excellent and held some big numbers themselves. I was slightly disappointed by the ending as the last number was a bit of a damp squib following on from a show-stopping rendition of ‘Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat’.

The current lead cast are due to change shortly with Morrissey and Triplett being replaced by Patrick Swayze and Claire Sweeney. Cooper and Price are staying on until August.

Key Cast members:

Sky Masterson – Adam Cooper

Nathan Detroit – Neil Morrissey

Sally Ann Triplett – Miss Adelaide

Sarah Brown – Kelly Price

Directed by Michael Grandage

Piccadilly Theatre, Denman Street, W1.

Box Office : 0870 060 0123

Performances commence at 7.30 pm Mon-Sat with matinees commencing at 2.30pm on Wednesday and Saturday.

Further info: http://www.theambassadors.com/piccadilly/

I bought my tickets through an offer on lastminute.com where Upper Circle tickets and a two-course meal at nearby Tiger Tiger on Haymarket cost £29.95 per person.