GUYS AND DOLLS, the classic Broadway musical, has a wonderful collection of songs by Frank Loesser. The first- rate book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, sentimental and witty, is based on Damon Runyon’s The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown and the low-life characters in Runyon’s short stories.
Australian comedienne Rebel Wilson, who presented the award for Best Supporting Actor at the 2016 BAFTA Award ceremony and stole the show with her bawdy wit, is now making her London stage debut in a great comedy role: Miss Adelaide, a dumb cabaret show girl, who has been engaged to a gambler for 14 years.
Wilson, a big doll, is not afraid to play up to her admirers who expect her to be broad, raunchy and unsubtle. Her diction is not as good as the more experienced actors. Her best moment is when she is singing “Sue Me!” and she gets really mad with her fiancé when it looks as if the wedding is going to be called off yet again.
Simon Lipkin, a likeable funny actor and an admirable sheepish foil, is cast as Nathan Detroit who runs the oldest established floating crap game in New York and bets Sky Masterson (Oliver Tompsett) that he can’t seduce a Salvation Army sister (Siubhan Harrison). “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”, as always, stops the show. The encore is built-in.