Guys & Dolls review: An eye-poppingly colourful rejuvenation of a classic musical

Is Guys & Dolls the best musical comedy of all time? It’s certainly up there with the best of the best and Nicholas Hytner’s revival at the Bridge Theatre is an eye-poppingly colourful celebration of its brilliance.

Well, it’s more like a rejuvenation of a show that has been performed countless times since its Broadway premiere in 1950, most recently with Rebel Wilson as showgirl Miss Adelaide.

Hytner ditches stunt casting (Wilson was fun but she basically played herself) and the proscenium arch. There’s seating on all sides for traditionalists but the bulk of the audience mills around a pit where hydraulic stages rise and fall, offering an up-close experience and bringing the show to vivid, pulsating life. (A nice touch: Some of the NYPD offers who expertly wrangle the audience into place are a bit rude.)

Immersive theatre has never been more fun. We’re whisked from diners, bars, and Save-a-Soul halls to the Hot Box nightclub and what appears to be a gay bar in Havana. Closing the first act, the Havana sequence is especially wonderful as dancers pass through the crowd and gambler Sky Masterson (Andrew Richardson) does a steamy samba with another fella.

This same-sex dance is Hytner’s only concession to modernising the musical. His lavishly costumed production is otherwise mercifully faithful to a cast-iron Frank Loesser classic that doesn’t need tampering with.

It’s a tale of two couples. Small-time dice roller Nathan Detroit (Daniel Mays) has been engaged to Miss Adelaide (Marisha Wallace) for 14 years and she’s desperate for him to name the date. He’s more concerned with waivers, betting Sky that he can’t take straight-laced Save-A-Soul missionary Sarah Brown (Celinde Schoenmaker) on a date to Cuba.

Will Sarah fall for Sky’s roguish ways? Will Nathan ever make an honest woman of his long-suffering fiancée? The road to yays or nays is paved with comedy zingers, sparkling routines choreographed by Arlene Phillips and James Cousins, and one great tune after another. ‘Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat’ is a glorious highlight. Nathan’s gambling chums give in to religious fervour in a rousing number that brings the house down and gets not one but two reprises.

The casting is perfect. Richardson and Schoenmaker are suitably swoony as he loses his air of cool and she discovers a taste for rum and romance. In the film version, Nathan was played by the suave Frank Sinatra, who was desperate to play Sky but lost the role to Marlon Brando. But he’s meant to be a loveable buffoon and Mays has rumpled charm in spades, plus his chemistry with Wallace is off the charts.

As in Dreamgirls, Hairspray, and Oklahoma! Marisha steals the show. She’s sassy and sexy when Adelaide is performing at the Hot Box. Then she’s soft and vulnerable as she powers through a perpetual, psychosomatic cold brought on by Nathan’s dithering over dates. Since relocating here from the States she’s become a gift to musicals and, like the show itself, she truly sparkles.

Rating: 5/5

Guys & Dolls is playing at the Bridge Theatre, London. Get tickets here.