GUYS AND DOLLS, a landmark in American music theatre, premiered in New York in 1950 when it ran for 1200 performances. It has first-rate songs by Frank Loesser and a first -rate book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.
The script, sentimental and witty, is based on Damon Runyon’s The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown and the characters of Runyon’s short stories. The tales are satires on the low life of petty crooks in and around Broadway. The bums, broads, touts, pickpockets, showgirls, gangsters (many based on real¬-life gangsters whom Runyon knew personally) are immortalised by their whimsical nicknames and idiosyncratic language. They are all gamblers and one of the high spots of the show is the choreographed crap game in the sewers.
Nathan Detroit (David Haigh) bets Sky Masterson (Jamie Parker) that he can’t seduce a salvation army missionary (Siubhan Harrison). Sky persuades her to have dinner with him in Havana by promising to bring a dozen genuine sinners to her Save-A-Soul Mission.
Parker is a charmer, especially when he is singing “I’ve Never Been in Love Before”. Haigh is disarming. Sophie Thompson as Nathan’s long-term fiancée has all the best one-liners and is very funny in a broad caricature way. “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” is one of the great Broadway show-stoppers and has fully rehearsed encores already built in. The gospel singing is led by Gavin Spokes’s Nicely-Nicely Johnson, the most Runyonesque character.
Gordon Greenberg’s lively and enjoyable production will be going on a long tour of the UK starting in mid-March, following its London season.