Donmar Warehouse: Guys and Dolls directed by Michael Grandage
Guys and Dolls: a musical fable of Broadway. Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Donmar Warehouse production directed by Michael Grandage. Australian production directed by Jamie Lloyd. Designed by Christopher Oram. Choreographed by Rob Ashford, recreated by Chris Bailey. Lighting design by Howard Harrison, recreated by James Whiteside. Music direction by Stephen Gray. Princess Theatre, Melbourne. Australian premiere April 5, 2008.
The Brits are doing it again: sending bagels back to Broadway. This Donmar Warehouse production (which premiered at the Piccadilly Theatre in London in 2005) is on its way to the Great White Way. But it's in Melbourne en route. To limber up. And the broads rule the boards at the Princess.
Marina rules the waves, too.
(Marina Prior, photo: Chris Boyd)
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Like the famed National Theatre production 25 years ago, Michael Grandage's production tackles Guys and Dolls as if it were a play by Arthur Miller. And Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows' book not only stands up to the re-examination, it actually comes to life. Or new life at least.
Best of all, Miss Adelaide and Sargeant Sarah take centre stage in this sly and sleazy world.
Adelaide -- the psychosomatically sick showgirl -- is the long-suffering fiancee of Nathan Detroit, operator of the "oldest-established permanent floating crap game in New York." She's been engaged so long, she's had to invent a marriage and five children in letters to her mother.
Sarah Brown is a prim Salvation Army missionary waging war on New York's deadliest sins: dice and drink. She becomes a pawn in a huge bet between Detroit and Sky Masterson, who brags that he can score any woman he chooses.
Desperate to raise $1000 as down-payment for a venue for his nightly crap game, Detroit calls Masterson's bluff. The mission he sets Masterson is to crack onto the holiest of rollers. And he has 24 hours to do it in.
In a traditional production, Adelaide and Sarah are mere pawns. Here, they're queens, the most powerful players on the board. We've seen great things over the years from Marina Prior (Pirates, Phantom, The Secret Garden, you name it) and Lisa McCune (from Sondheim to the Sound of Music), but their performances here rank with the best of their best.
Prior can do anything. We're used to that. But McCune raises the dramatic stakes. After the mighty crescendo of 'Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat', in which the gamblers end up at the Salvo's midnight prayer meeting near the end of the show, Adelaide and Sarah rock our hearts in 'Marry the Man Today'.
There's a new maturity in McCune's acting, a subtlety to match her scintillating physical acting. (Her first-time-drunk innocent-in-Havana catfight routine is the first act show-stopper.)
The boys are pretty damn fine too.
The film had Marlon Brando, the London production had Ewan McGregor, we've got Ian Stenlake as Sky Masterson. In Stenlake, this production rolls boxcars... that's two sixes in craps! He has the machismo of Marlon and the appeal and acting skills of Ewan. But Stenlake can do one thing either Brando and McGregor can't. (Or can't do well!) That's sing.
The same can't really be said for Garry McDonald whose insecurity of vocal line nearly overturned the boat in the second act. He ain't no Sinatra! But then he's not meant to be. Nathan Detroit is not some slick operator in Grandage's production. He's a gullible, indecisive, schmuck sucker. And McDonald gives Detroit a weakness which is both touching and contemptible... and ideal for the role.
Casting of minor roles is excellent. Wayne Scott Kermond and Magda Szubanski are especially good Benny Southstreet and Big Jule. But Bert LaBonte, Anne Phelan and Russell Newman all make telling contributions. And Shane Jacobson is a shrewd choice as Nicely Nicely Johnson.
The beauty of Guys and Dolls, finally, is that there's plenty to watch, for both Dolls and Guys. It's one of those rare musicals -- like West Side Story -- that aren't totally sappy and saccharine.
A slightly shortened version of this review was published in the Herald Sun on Tuesday April 8, 2008.
The Brits are doing it again: sending bagels back to Broadway. This Donmar Warehouse production (which premiered at the Piccadilly Theatre in London in 2005) is on its way to the Great White Way. But it's in Melbourne en route. To limber up. And the broads rule the boards at the Princess.
Marina rules the waves, too.
(Marina Prior, photo: Chris Boyd)
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Like the famed National Theatre production 25 years ago, Michael Grandage's production tackles Guys and Dolls as if it were a play by Arthur Miller. And Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows' book not only stands up to the re-examination, it actually comes to life. Or new life at least.
Best of all, Miss Adelaide and Sargeant Sarah take centre stage in this sly and sleazy world.
Adelaide -- the psychosomatically sick showgirl -- is the long-suffering fiancee of Nathan Detroit, operator of the "oldest-established permanent floating crap game in New York." She's been engaged so long, she's had to invent a marriage and five children in letters to her mother.
Sarah Brown is a prim Salvation Army missionary waging war on New York's deadliest sins: dice and drink. She becomes a pawn in a huge bet between Detroit and Sky Masterson, who brags that he can score any woman he chooses.
Desperate to raise $1000 as down-payment for a venue for his nightly crap game, Detroit calls Masterson's bluff. The mission he sets Masterson is to crack onto the holiest of rollers. And he has 24 hours to do it in.
In a traditional production, Adelaide and Sarah are mere pawns. Here, they're queens, the most powerful players on the board. We've seen great things over the years from Marina Prior (Pirates, Phantom, The Secret Garden, you name it) and Lisa McCune (from Sondheim to the Sound of Music), but their performances here rank with the best of their best.
Prior can do anything. We're used to that. But McCune raises the dramatic stakes. After the mighty crescendo of 'Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat', in which the gamblers end up at the Salvo's midnight prayer meeting near the end of the show, Adelaide and Sarah rock our hearts in 'Marry the Man Today'.
There's a new maturity in McCune's acting, a subtlety to match her scintillating physical acting. (Her first-time-drunk innocent-in-Havana catfight routine is the first act show-stopper.)
The boys are pretty damn fine too.
The film had Marlon Brando, the London production had Ewan McGregor, we've got Ian Stenlake as Sky Masterson. In Stenlake, this production rolls boxcars... that's two sixes in craps! He has the machismo of Marlon and the appeal and acting skills of Ewan. But Stenlake can do one thing either Brando and McGregor can't. (Or can't do well!) That's sing.
The same can't really be said for Garry McDonald whose insecurity of vocal line nearly overturned the boat in the second act. He ain't no Sinatra! But then he's not meant to be. Nathan Detroit is not some slick operator in Grandage's production. He's a gullible, indecisive, schmuck sucker. And McDonald gives Detroit a weakness which is both touching and contemptible... and ideal for the role.
Casting of minor roles is excellent. Wayne Scott Kermond and Magda Szubanski are especially good Benny Southstreet and Big Jule. But Bert LaBonte, Anne Phelan and Russell Newman all make telling contributions. And Shane Jacobson is a shrewd choice as Nicely Nicely Johnson.
The beauty of Guys and Dolls, finally, is that there's plenty to watch, for both Dolls and Guys. It's one of those rare musicals -- like West Side Story -- that aren't totally sappy and saccharine.
A slightly shortened version of this review was published in the Herald Sun on Tuesday April 8, 2008.
posted by Chris Boyd at 9:20 AM
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