Guys & Dolls

During my youth, one of the school plays we did was a musical about an American road trip, and one of the songs in that play was Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat. And now, over 30 years later, I’ve finally seen the show from which it came – Guys & Dolls, which is currently running at the Bridge Theatre, on the South Bank of the Thames by Tower Bridge.

It was a wonderfully immersive and accessible performance, including a touch tour and audio description, so here’s a little review of my experience. This isn’t sponsored or gifted, as I bought my own tickets, so I hope you find it interesting.

The afternoon started with a touch tour, and it’s safe to say it’s one of the busiest I’ve ever been on. I was told that there were 37 people who had signed up for the audio described performance altogether, which is brilliant. And I already knew the Bridge Theatre had a good reputation for accessibility, as I enjoyed seeing Alys, Always at the venue 4 years ago with my friend Claire.

Indeed, Claire joined me for this show as well, as did my mother, for whom this was her first theatre visit since before the pandemic. And my workmate Emily also came along with her mother for the show later on, as they couldn’t make it for the tour. So I knew a few people there.

The tour took place in the huge ‘pit’ in the centre of the auditorium, and that’s worth addressing first, because it actually serves as the stage.

This production is ‘in the round’, meaning the audience are seated on all sides of the large square performance space. But then it takes the immersion a huge step further, by also having hundreds of audience members standing in the stage area as well, to give the atmosphere of bustling streets, bars, etc.

It’s very effective, and it’s all meticulously organised and choreographed. The action actually takes place on platforms that rise up from the floor to create rooms and walkways, and the actors move around the platforms as they talk and sing, thus ensuring that everybody in the auditorium can get a good view of them.

The audience members on the stage floor are also shuffled around as necessary by people dressed as New York cops, to add to the atmosphere. But you have to be fit to be in that group, as you’ll be standing for 3 hours! Neither myself nor my companions fancied doing that, so we all had seated tickets instead, and still had a great view. But when I was looking at things through my monocular (my small telescope) during the show, I could see that several audience members on the stage floor were visibly and understandably elated at being so close to the action, with big smiles on their faces.

So we had the touch tour within that massive space, and our large group were nicely spread out as we looked at some of the lovely costumes, hats and wigs, and props including a bar, café tables, newspaper dispensers, a washing basin, a barber’s chair, and so on. It all helped to give a really good sense of the settings of various scenes, the styles of the main characters, and so on.

The tour was led by VocalEyes audio describers Jenny Stewart-Cosgrove and Andrew Holland. I already knew Jenny in particular from previous shows, and she recognised me, greeting me when my mother and I arrived. She apparently reads this blog too, so hello! And there’s a pretty good chance I’ve met Andrew before as well, or I’ve certainly heard him describing shows before at the very least, as he’s a co-founder of VocalEyes and thus has a lot of experience.

Their audio description during the show was excellent as well, keeping us up to speed with the action, scene changes, characters, etc on the stage, and the elaborate dancing during the musical numbers. Fortunately the headsets were able to go loud enough that we could still hear them over the music. And there was also the traditional and very helpful pre-show introduction giving details of costumes, sets, etc, which is available on the VocalEyes page for the show.

The staff at the Bridge Theatre were also lovely and helpful too. In fact, the only issue we encountered was the lift that myself, my mother and Claire were invited to use to go downstairs to the disabled toilet. It’s an unusual lift, as you have to press and hold the relevant button down until you get to the next level, and the door should just pop open when you get there. But it didn’t open for us, and we couldn’t find a button to open it either, which made my elderly mother in particular get a bit anxious, understandably. But thankfully the lady who had shown us into the lift noticed that we were still in it, and ran downstairs to let us out!

As for the show itself, I’ve never seen any of the previous productions or the film adaptation, so I have no frame of comparison, but this version is amazing. The musical is basically a love story set in New York, with a short trip to Havana as well, and focuses on 2 pairings in particular.

Firstly, there’s Nathan Detroit (Daniel Mays), who’s struggling to find places to stage illegal craps games as the police are hot on his tail, led by Lieutenant Brannigan (Cornelius Clarke). Nathan’s long-standing fiancée and nightclub singer Adelaide (Marisha Wallace) is rather keen for him to marry her, as she’s been telling her mother that they were wed several years ago.

And secondly there’s ambitious gambler Sky Masterson (Andrew Richardson), who pursues a lady called Sarah Brown (Celinde Schoenmaker) from the Save-A-Soul Mission in order to win a bet, but the relationship grows more complex than either expected. And there are various other great characters in the show as well.

It’s a lot of fun, with a great deal of humour as well as moments that give the characters pause for thought. And it’s all brought to life by the music, with superb singing and dancing, backed by an amazing 14-piece live band who play from a window high up in the auditorium. There’s even some live nightclub-style entertainment during the interval as well.

The leading ladies Sarah and Adelaide are particularly good, with powerful voices and great stage presence when they sing. And among the few songs I already knew, Sky Masterson does a great lively performance of Luck Be A Lady, while the character of Nicely Nicely Johnson (Cedric Neal) leads a storming version of Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat that rightly gets huge applause and multiple encores. And the whole company are working on a cast recording that will be released later this year, such has been the demand for an official soundtrack album for people to keep.

So my mother and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did my friends who were there as well. It was an immersive, accessible, enjoyable and memorable production, and it’s no wonder the run has been extended from its original end date of 2 September 2023 to 24 February 2024 instead.

They don’t have another audio described performance listed at the moment, but there is a captioned performance coming up on Saturday 19 August at 2:30pm. So do keep an eye on their show page and the VocalEyes What’s On list in case another AD performance comes up, and you could also contact the theatre to indicate your interest in one. It’s certainly worth going to see it if you get the chance, it is a captivating experience.