by ‘Ben’
The premiere of this great musical on Broadway was in 1950 where it ran for 1200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. It has had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptationstarring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine. Now it is Bookham Light Opera’s turn and, judging by the audience comments afterwards, this was one of the best performances ever by the Company.
All shows should have a real “show-stopper” and ‘Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat’ deserves this accolade and, as presented by Nicely-Nicely Johnson (a splendid Mark Mowbray) and the cast of ‘Guys and Dolls’, was worth the price of admission alone; Mark, on his first appearance on the Nomad stage, stole the show on most of his appearances. Nicely-Nicely needs a very fine voice but also the stature of a Stubby Kaye and here it is clear that Mark has expanded both his experience and waistline since his first stage appearance at the age of 11. We hope to see you again.
Singing throughout was excellent and the dual heroines, the strait-laced Sarah Brown (Helen Dixon) and Miss Adelaide (Vycky Cartwright, a newcomer to the Theatre), excelled, particularly in the stimulating duet ’Marry the Man, Today’ where their contrasting styles suited the songs and sentiments perfectly. The genteel, innocent Sarah, from a more sophisticated background, might be easier to play than the brash. adenoidal moll, Adelaide, but both ladies created perfect opposites and balanced perfectly. The two leading men, gambler supreme, Sky Masterson (Sam Rosen) and the ever-conniving Nathan Detroit (Mark Leddin) strove to keep up with their partners and, on the whole, managed very well even if they couldn’t match the vocal dexterity of the women.
The best singing of the night, inevitably, came from the magnificent voice of Joe St. Johanser in his ‘More I Cannot Wish You’; otherwise his talents were wasted in the small part of the leader of the Mission, Arvide Abernathy. Likewise, Annabelle Farrell as General Cartwight and Roger Thomas as Lt. Brannigan had little to do but did it with panache. Big Julie, the professional crap-player from Chicago was in the reliable hands of Richard Peachey
Most amateur musicals have a preponderance of women in the chorus but ‘Guys and Dolls’ demands an almost exclusively male ensemble and here BLOS had clearly found some excellent tenors and basses. However, the weakness of so many amateur groups – and I’m not thinking exclusively of BLOS - is the group movements of the chorus. While the music is, of course, paramount, it is essential that everyone on stage is creating and playing a real character. Here there was too much rather aimless wandering around with no definite purpose, especially noticeable in the great ‘Luck Be A Lady’ which lost some of it’s impact. Credit should also be given to those regular BLOS singing ladies who nobly sacrificed themselves to minor appearances in the interest of the whole.
Musical accompaniment was, as usual, in the capable and excellent hands of Musical Director, James Marr and his regular team. A particular feature of the production was the work of Choreographer, Christina Harris who created so many high spots with the superb – an overused but entirely justified encomium – Hot Box Dancers (Sophie Johnstone, Millie Franks, Felicity Minns and Laura Spalding –another new face and figure) who lifted the show to new heights on every appearance, especially in the lovely Havana tango which degenerated into a free fight!
Director, Jeff Wightwick knows a thing or two about the stage, even though this was his first full-length musical and rarely put a foot wrong although at the end of the final Mission scene when it was necessary to clear numerous benches from the stage and the ensemble had already launched into a rousing revivalist hymn, it was pity that the singing tailed off into silence. One more verse would have completed the illusion. Similarly a delightful laugh was diminished when the “converted” Sky led the Salvation Army Band onstage playing the Bass Drum for the finale when more comic impact would have been achieved had he come surprisingly last – an entrance via the pass door to the Foyer would have provided even more delightful impact. The programme notes, too, were limited as I would have liked to read more about the participants
Costumes and Salvation Army uniforms in the safe hands of Jenny Hasted and Kris Benjafield were, for the women, perfect but, while it always seems to be more difficult to kit out men, surely all the male characters should have been wearing double-breasted suits. Stage Management (Iain Macfarlane), Lighting (Tony and Dee Bowdery) and Sound (Tim Williams) maintained their excellent reputations.
Thank you BLOS and the Nomad team for a really memorable evening. The audience reaction surely told you how well you did.