Guys and Dolls

Taking our seats, we were greeted with our first view of the staging for this production of Guys and Dolls. As expected from Mark Nattress and the Sutton Arts Set building team, this was impressive and added to by the illuminated signs hanging on each side and at the back of the stage, which could be covered depending on the scene. Other scenes were created with the use of a reversible shop front, for The Mission, a news stand and a moveable bar, for the Havana scene. I also felt that the Hotbox had great scenery.  This meant that the staging for this production was simple but looked really good and meant that scene changes were dealt with in a swift and effective way.

The sound was generally good, although sometimes the performers when singing were not in sync with the orchestra, which was located in a side room.  Occasionally some sound levels had to be changed mid-song to allow the audience to hear properly. 

The costumes and wigs looked really good and definitely worked well for the era the production is set in. All the ‘guys’ looked great in their gangster outfits and the ‘dolls’ of the hotbox, also, looked very impressive. 

The choreography by Simon Hundley, Emma Green and Sophie McCoy was simple but incredibly polished and very snappy this gave the whole production a real lift. Stand out moments, had to be the choreography of ‘Sit Down your Rockin the Boat in which the whole company was involved.

The orchestra under the musical direction of Gladstone Wilson played well.

Throughout show the chorus and all worked really well together, it was clear that everyone was having fun and, as usual for Sutton Arts, there was a great sense of teamwork. As mentioned, the hotbox girls were particularly impressive and very funny. 

Emily Armstrong and Dexter Whitehead must have been thanking their lucky stars when they cast this show. Tim Benjamin was charismatic and suitably aloof in his main role as Sky Masterson, and he provided a very strong performance, winning the hearts of both Sarah Brown and the audience. Sarah, played by Leah Fennell had a lovely singing voice and sang really well with Tim, she also paired well with Paul Wescott who was perfectly cast as Arvide Abernathy and you easily believed that he had fatherly affection for Sarah. Aarron Armstrong-Craddock was very charismatic and watchable as Nathan Detroit and, like Tim, effortlessly had the audience behind him.  Suzy Donnelly as Miss Adelaide was exceptionally good and definitely one of the star performances of the night. Her singing voice was perfect for the role and she kept her accent brilliantly throughout all her songs. Another good performance was given by Richard Howell as ‘Nicely Nicely Johnson’, Richard found a lot of humor in his characterisation and brought a lot of heart to his role. His singing voice was lovely as was shown in the number ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’.  Also giving good performances were Oliver Farrelly as Benny Southstreet, Carl Horton as Harry The Horse and Andrew Tomlinson as Big Jule.  Trying to find out were the crap game was going on was Mark Natrass as Lt. Brannigan.  This was a nice role for Mark. Keeping everyone together in the Mission was Alison Odell giving a good performance as General Cartwright.

 Although I have highlighted only a few of the cast everyone contributed really well and made this a great show with some fabulous moments. 

Huge congratulations to Emily, Dexter and the rest of the team for pulling together a very enjoyable show.

 

 

 

 

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