ROCKIN’ THE BOAT
Blythe Wilson and Alexis Gordon are highlights in a standout production of Guys and Dolls. Review,
Guys and Dolls (out of 4) Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Directed by Donna Feore. Until Oct. 29 at the Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St., Stratford. StratfordFestival.ca or 1-800-567-1600.
What Guys and Dolls lacks in marriage advice and dating etiquette, Donna Feore’s production at the Stratford Festival makes up for in pure, unbridled energy.
The morals of the much-beloved 1950 musical about sinners and saints under the bright lights of Broadway may not have aged as well as its ear-catching melodies have — dice games and spinsterhood are not nearly as threatening to today’s society as surreptitiously getting a girl drunk on a first date (as in “Havana”), or getting married with ulterior motives to change your partner (“Marry the Man Today”).
But if anyone can make an argument for the enduring appeal of this famously “perfect” musical, it’s director and choreographer Feore. After a slow start to the 2017 Stratford Festival on Monday night, Tuesday’s opening of Guys and Dolls really gets the festival rolling.
With Guys and Dolls, Feore continues her hot streak in the Festival Theatre, following Fiddler on the Roof, Crazy for You, The Sound of Music and last year’s A Chorus Line. With each additional year of experience on the famous thrust stage and with the Stratford ensemble of triple threats, she even seems to outdo herself.
In the opening “Overture/ Runy onland” ( Guys and Dolls is based on the short stories of Damon Runyon), the set and costumes of 1940s New York begin in whites, blacks and greys (a nod to the Shaw Festival’s entirely black-and-white production of the musical in 2013, perhaps?) before popping into Technicolor in a bit of theatrical magic.
What follows is a whirlwind of tightly choreographed stage business of flirtation, crime, and urban mundanity — a stage filled with characters and stories that will unfold in other plays we don’t get to see.
Feore makes full use of the thrust stage and her18 ensemble cast members (as music director and conductor Laura Burton does her orchestra of17 musicians), before matching her layered choreography with the harmonic layers of “Fugue for Tinhorns,” performed by Steve Ross as Nicely Nicely Johnson (who makes a habit of marking every entrance with a new snack in hand), Mark Uhre as Benny South street (a thrilling add to the Stratford cast, with feet moving high and fast like he’s walking barefoot on hot sand), and Marcus Nance as Rusty Charlie ( Crazy for You fans will remember Ross and Nance as two thirds of a hilarious trio of harmonizing cowboys).
And while some aspects of Guys and Dolls that may never fit seamlessly with modern conceptions of gender equality, Feore makes her best effort to even the scales. Alexis Gordon as the missionary Sarah Brown (the best role yet for this young star, in only her third season at the festival) discovers her fiery side, holds her own in a brawl — and orders her own drinks in Cuba, thank you very much (though, it’s still unclear as to how much she really knows about the drink’s alcoholic ingredients).
This streak is as charming to the audience as it is to Sky Masterson (a crooning Evan Buliung), the famous gambler who woos her on a bet. Blythe Wilson is a highlight as Miss Adelaide, a cabaret performer and long-time fiancée of crap-game runner Nathan Detroit (Sean Arbuckle, whose only fault is a disobedient New York accent). Wilson is at once light and airy, shrieking in delight, but also sombre, thoughtful, and a career woman — her acts at the Hot Box are sexy and flirty, but are received with cheers and without jeers from her male audience members.
But Feore’s command of group dance numbers continues to be her strength. The choreography for the male ensemble in “The Crapshooter’s Dance” may be her most jawdropping yet, in a blur of pinstripes and fedoras (thanks to Dana Osborne’s costume design), with special commendation to the acrobatics of ensemble cast member Devon Michael Brown in his Stratford debut. That scene defines Feore’s direction: fast, tight, energetic, and full of precise, interesting imagery (for another example, just wait for one par- ticular breathtaking moment of “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat.”)
Stratford has made a solid bet on Feore and Guys and Dolls, and theatregoers would be suckers not to do the same.