‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat’ – Guys and Dolls, Phoenix Theatre, London 12.08.2016

Now if you keep up with my blog and my page ‘Dates for the Diary’ then you would have notice a recent change in a certain shows date. Originally I had planned to see this musical in the beginning of September (due to a great deal!) but a shock announcement last week meant that it would sadly be closing earlier than expected in two weeks time!!! Panicking, I was straight on the phone to ATG managing to get a refund for the tickets. But I still wanted to see the show and with a quick discussion with Hayleigh I had managed to get tickets for the row B seats 11 and 12 for the following Friday night!

Guys and Dolls the gamblers musical has been performing at the Phoenix Theatre since 19th March transferring from the Savoy Theatre, and Chichester Theatre before that. Having heard only good things about it and having an extended run, and relocation you can understand the shock of the sudden closure but we will never know a true reason and it is the producers say.

I have been the Phoenix theatre a few times seeing ‘Blood Brothers’ way back, and then returning to see ‘Once’ (Blog Here) and the charity concert ‘West End Recast’ (Blog Here)  All times I had been based down in the stalls towards the back and never complained about the view down there! But tonight I was up high in the Upper Circle and with our ticket priced at £39.50 (where in September we had row b of stalls for £35 but let’s not go there…!) I was pleasently surprised at how good our view was, the only irritating thing with Row B in upper is some of those in Row A lean forward due to the low rail, so I did at times have to lean in close to Hayleigh to see the stage left action, but nonetheless we could see everything else as you can see from the photo’s (Right is before Act 1, and Left before Act 2) and facial expressions were very visible! So don’t be out off with the upper circle, I know I won’t if a show I want to see appears in the future.

 

 

‘Guys and Dolls’ tells the tale of two gamblers based in New York, one gambler Nathan Detroit, who has been avoiding getting married to his girlfriend Adelaide (a Burlesque dance at the local club) for fourteen years. However Nathan has over issues in the city, and needs one thousand dollars in order to rent a place for the crap game but neither he nor his friends Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreet can afford. With the top gamblers demanding a location of the crap game, Nathan decides to bet against the master gambler Sky Masterson, ending with him challenging to take a woman of his choice to dinner in Havana, Cuba. Sky accepts the bet and Nathan ends up choosing the prude Sergeant Sarah Brown, who runs a mission for sinners in the city.  When Sky visits Sarah he invites her to have dinner and at first Sarah refuses. Sky makes a bet that, he would bring one dozen sinners to her next mission, if she would agree to go to dinner. Again Sarah refuses the deal, but when General Cartwright comes to New York to shutdown the mission, she feels that the only chance to keep the mission operating is accepting Sky’s invitation. They travel to Havana, and after a drink filled night they unexpectedly fall in love with each other; but when they return to back, Sarah discovers that Nathan used the place for his crap game. Further, she believes that Sky has plotted the scheme to use her. Now Sky has to keep to his word, and prove that he has nothing to do with the Crap Game in the and convince the gamblers and gangsters of New York including Nathan Detroit  from the crap game to go to the mission to help Sarah, and also find the error in their ways, which is defiantly the support Adelaide needed for Nathan to finally keep his word.

Once again I was very happy that I went to this musical completely cold turkey, not truly knowing the story, and only knowing a few of the songs such as the famous ‘Luck Be a Lady’ and ‘Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat’ which I have seen performed during the Olivier Award ceremonies, and also the National Theatre 50 year Celebration.  It is a classic musical full of dancing numbers, and chorus numbers that bring the whole show to life. The dance number before ‘Luck Be a Lady’ was a personal favourite, it just looked so natural to them all and greatly deserved he applause from the audience. Also ‘Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat’ was a lot better live than watching it on the tv!

I was also very happy that I was lucky to have the full cast performing tonight:

Miss Adelaide – Rebel Wilson

Nathan Detroit – Simon Lipkin

Sky Masterson – Oliver Tompsett

Sarah Brown – Siobhan Harrison

Nicely-Nicely Johnson – Gavin Spokes

Benny Southstreet – Jason Pennycooke

Arvide Abernathy – Billy Boyly

Big Jule – Nic Greenshields

Harry the Horse – Cornelius Clarke

General Matilda – Lorna Gayle

Angie the Ox – Giovanni Spano

With a big cast, it was lovely to see that every performer had their moments on the stage, and I loved that they had change of scenes that included little comic moments such as the city drunk, and the newspaper boy. They all worked so well together and seemed to be enjoying themselves!

From the cast list there is a fair few that I have seen before, and as I hadn’t really had a chance to look through the programme during the production I didn’t realise until I was on the train that it was Jason Pennycooke playing one of Nathan Detroit’s sidemen, I had seen Jason last in Memphis in January 2015, where he played Bobby (Blog Here). Tonight he was back to his amazing comic ways, alongside his partner in crime Gavin Spokes who played Nicely-Nicely. They worked very well together but also when they were solo they had the audience chuckling. Gavin Spokes stole the show with his ‘Rockin’ the Boat’ number with 3 encores (whether that is the way each night).

Now onto the romantic couples and the main leads of the show, I would be lying if the main reason I wanted to see this show wasn’t because of Oliver, as when I heard he was playing Sky I just knew I had to see the show. One good thing about the show sadly coming to a close early and having to rearrange tickets was because as of the 14th August Oliver will no longer be performing as Sky, so I may have been greatly disappointed but I’m not! Tonight’s role was very different to the recent shows I have seen Oliver perform in, mainly because the they were very rock music focused (Rock of Ages, and We Will Rock You), so tonight it was like seeing him all over again and it demonstrated just how versatile he really is with each role that he portrays. I loved watching him perform, and it was nice to see him bring so much comedy to the role, especially the little moment such as his confession in the mission just his facial expressions had the audience laughing, and also its amazing how a bright pink apron can suit him. His voice again was a thrill to listen to, and although some words were lost in his number ‘Luck be a Lady’ you can deny that Oliver has an amazing set of lungs when it comes to the belting notes, I think I could just listen to that alone! His love interest Sarah played by Siobhan a first at seeing her perform, worked well with Oliver, her performance was strong, and the audience watched as Sarah transformed from a young innocent sister working with her grandfather in the Mission, to a strong willed but in love lady who can also get her own way when it comes to men.

The other love duo was Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide performed by Simon Lipkin, and the A-List film celebrity Rebel Wilson. Rebel being a the well known name of the show I was intrigued as to how she would be on the west end, I knew she could sing having starred in ‘Pitch Perfect’ and I knew she could act, but that is behind a camera, and where you can take many takes to get it right. I will also admit that I wasn’t that minded if I did not see her in the show, but now I am eating my words, cause I am so glad that I did, she must be my favourite star that has appeared on West End, I loved watching her and what’s great is that she really made Adelaide her own and brought her own unique take on the role. In the past has mainly been portrayed by older ladies, but her youthful approach really worked for me, and she really can sing!  She had everyone giggling with her struggles of trying to get Nathan Detroit to marry her, Simon Lipkin played her husband to be, again Simon follows recent performers who were much older, but with Rebel playing Adelaide, they needed a younger Natham and Simon was just perfect, and anouther favourite of the West End to me. I loved their scenes together, and you could tell that they loved performing together as they just worked well with every line, but also you could see they were trying to one up each other, and I can only imagine what they will get up to on the final performances.

I am so happy that I managed to fit in this performance before it closed and although I didn’t manage to talk to Rebel I did see her at the stage door, and I did get photos with Oliver and Simon again so it was defiantly not wasted!

I would defiantly like to see this show again, and although it is leaving the West End on the 21st August (next week) there are still some tickets available for the last few showings on the ATG website here and sadly I believe the Tour which was starring Richard Fleeshman as Sky has also recently finished its run. But I know that when and if it returns to a stage near by then I would be happy to go again, and I highly recommend it to those who love the classic musicals, and one for all ages!