Nicely-Nicely does it, the guys are a hoot
Guys And Dolls (Savoy Theatre, and touring) Verdict: Mission successful ★★★★✩
THERE are few musical numbers rooty-tootier than Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat and again it works its second-half magic in the Savoy Theatre’s revival of Guys And Dolls. Chubby Nicely- Nicely Johnson ( Gavin Spokes) is with his New York gambling friends, entombed in a Salvation Army prayer meeting having lost a bet.
Suddenly Nicely-Nicely is on his feet, the rhythm of the Lord — or something like that — making his toes tap and shoulders twitch. ‘Siddown, siddown, siddown, siddown …’ he sings, clutching his hat to his chest and opening his lungs to the gods.
Soon the whole Mission Hall, if not the whole theatre, is jiving away, punching the air. Revivalism, indeed. This blistering production, first seen at Chichester in 2014, starts an 18town tour in mid-March but for the next few weeks has the bully pulpit of the Savoy Theatre. I bet it sells a bundle.
It contains strong comic performances, most insistently from Sophie Thompson as ageing hoofer Miss Adelaide who dreams of marriage to lovable loser Nathan Detroit.
In Chichester he was sung ably by Peter Polycarpou. Here the part is filled by David Haig.
Mr Haig lacks Mr Polycarpou’ s honeyed voice. Nor is it entirely easy to believe that this most English of actors is a small-time Manhattan card-game organiser.
Yet there is no denying that Mr Haig has instant stage presence. A feint here, a delayed gag-line there, he col- lects laughter the way a magnet picks up iron filings. I looked down my row in the stalls and saw f aces beaming with pleasure while Mr Haig was doing his stuff.
JAMIE Parker, a survivor from the Chichester show, again plays wiseguy Sky Masterson (real name: Obadiah), who accepts a Nathan bet that he cannot pick up Sally Army girl Sarah (a lovely performance from Siubhan Harrison).
Mr Parker has a liquid-limbed ease. He and Miss Harrison make a handsome couple.
With inventive choreography — high throws and hunched bodies used as walkways — and extensive use of dry ice and blue lighting, there is no shortage of spectacle. A perfectionist might argue that the music is just a few inches below par.
The Savoy’s amplification system was fluffy to my ear and the singing never quite makes one’s neck tingle.
It may also be possible that they overdo the dry ice in the sewers scene. Those at the front of the stalls may want to take their gas masks. I don’t think I had previously noticed the Damon Runyonesque line about Sarah being ‘a refined doll mixed up in the Mission dodge’.
Nic Greenshields is splendidly vast as Big Jule, though it is a pity he does not have a deeper voice. Nicely-Nicely and Co are a hoot, arrayed in vivid suits and crumpled trilbys. All t his with songs such as Adelaide’s Lament, Luck Be A Lady and I’ve Never Been In Love Before.
What a terrific start to the West End’s year.