Guys and Dolls JR

Guys and Dolls is a favourite of mine, so I was interested to see Guys and Dolls JR. performed by the youth section of North Stars Theatre Company. As with a lot of smaller societies these days, unfortunately, a live band was out of budget, so backing tracks were used. These combined with the skills from Musical Director Darcey McCoy managed to produce some great sounds on stage. Vocals were strong, harmonies were clear and the timing shown by Daniel Diggle (Nicely-Nicely) in “ Sit Down You`re Rocking The Boat” was bang on – well done! That`s a super tricky number to nail.

The set designed by Darcey McCoy and Lily Axworthy was very versatile with a door and a brick and windows exterior mounted on a truck that could be spun to show the  interior – a very quick and slick way to change a scene. Simplicity was used so the entrance to the sewers for the underground craps game was a sign over an opening for the youths to crawl through. Chairs, tables and a large painted Hotbox sign was used to portray the inside of The Hotbox Club. Props by Emily Sirrell and Katie Axworthy were very much in keeping with the era and the cast handled them very confidently and competently, the reproduced newspaper was a good touch instead of simply getting a modern newspaper. The sound controlled by Lily Axworthy and Katie Axworthy was good throughout, no gremlins or crackles. I would however remind you to turn the mics off as soon as the actors exit the stage – we had one instance where a mic had accidently been left turned on and excited chatter could be heard. The lighting plotted by Emily Sirrell was very sympathetic to the scenes and added a lovely atmospheric layer to the production, there were some nice washes and spots were solid . The costumes by Darcey McCoy and Lily Axworthy were excellent, they provided some great  colour yet stayed in keeping with the era . Personally, I do have one very picky thing, I would have preferred to see Sarah Brown (Evie McCoy) in character shoes rather than the shoes she wore – I found they drew my eye because of the heel height and the noise they made onstage. I must add that they did not hamper her performance though.  It was so nice to see hairstyles from the era being replicated on the cast by Katie Cooper. The choreography for this production was also set  by Darcey McCoy (a lady of many hats) and George Denson, their  Dance Captain (Peyton Wood ) did a super job of translating and teaching the choreography to the rest of the cast.  I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of the younger members in one of the musical ensemble numbers – it is so nice to see the little ones starting out and being able to watch them grow and blossom through future productions.

Oliver Williams as Skye Masterson gave a very solid and committed performance. He had some great chemistry onstage with all his fellow actors, diction and projection was good. He was a perfect opposite for Evie McCoy (Sarah Brown), they bounced their dialogue off each other with good timing, Evie also gave us some great facial expressions and did a very convincing piece of drunk acting. Her vocals were phenomenal, she fully commits and has a lovely strength and bottom to her voice, her top isn’t thin and reedy it has some real depth. Kaya Read (Nathan Detroit ) gave a good solid characterisation, diction and projection was good his chemistry with his on stage love interest Sophie Mott (Miss Adelaide ) was clear and evident, he had a lovely gentle air about him. Sophie also brought some nice vocals and her comedic delivery of “ Adelaide`s  Lament” was very well done.

The ensemble worked hard in this production and they filled the stage well without it looking cluttered.  One piece of advice I would give to all the cast members is to breathe and slow down just a little bit when delivering dialogue – that adrenalin hit when it’s a live audience can cause you to speed up.  Thank you for inviting me, I thoroughly enjoyed your performance of Guys and Dolls JR and I look forward to seeing you all again very soon.

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