Guys and Dolls JR

I must first say that I am not a great fan of junior productions that have been scaled down from the original adult productions particularly where adult emotions, experiences etc. are at the forefront of the show. Having said that, the young people in the youth section of Bolsover Drama Group (and many were very young), gave a good account of themselves and as always were full of energy and enthusiasm. Callum Priest was convincing as Sky Masterson and

by his own admission, singing isn’t one of his strengths but nevertheless, he showed a great sense of character and credit is due to him for persevering through all of his songs - well done! Leah Bromley coped exceedingly well with the role of Sarah Brown she has good stage presence and voice projection and her singing of ‘I’ll Know’, was lovely. Lochlan Tebb played the role of Nathan Detroit quite expressively for one so young (he is only eleven) and he had a good rapport with Adelaide who was excellently portrayed by Sophie Clifford. She had the shrill voice we associate with the role, a great New York accent and made the most of the comical dialogue. Her renditions of ‘A Bushell and a Peck’ and ‘Take Back Your Mink’ with super backing from the Hot Box Girls, were splendid. Good support came from Daniel Beard (Nicely-Nicely Johnson), Nathan Sawyer (Lt. Brannigan), James Clifford (Big Jule), Jarad Higgins (Benny Southstreet), Joe Bagguley (Rusty Charlie), Anton Peterson (Harry the Horse), Madeline Blunt (General Cartwright) and Holly Stothard (Miss Abernathy) whose singing of ‘More I Cannot Wish You’ was delightful. All the costumes were absolutely first rate. The ‘boys’ were exquisitely dressed in magnificent suits and hats and they really looked so dashingly debonair. The Mission outfits were very stylish and the costumes worn by the Hot Box Girls were fabulous. Whilst the sets were simple, mainly out of necessity, great credit must go to the backstage crew who worked overtime coping with the many scene changes. The enthusiastic Crapshooters, additional ‘Guy and Dolls’ along with the main characters, coped extremely well with the ensemble numbers, I particularly liked ‘Sit Down Your Rocking the Boat’. Congratulations must go to the whole production team for taking on this ambitious challenge, to everyone else involved in any way and especially to the wonderful young performers.

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