Thursday 7 September 2017

Stratford Festival 2017 # 1: Crapshoot

Anyone who has even glanced over the Stratford playbill for this season knows which show I went to first!  I think this marks the fifth different production of Guys and Dolls that I've seen -- or is it the sixth?  I've always found it a very entertaining show, although I tend to shy away from rhetorical assertions that it is "the greatest" or even "one of the greatest" of Broadway musicals.  Others have stated that, and continue to do so.

One element that draws me back to this show again and again is an element which it shares with Kiss Me, Kate and a handful of other shows: the clever and witty lyrics of the songs -- with Adelaide's Lament as the prime example.

Another is the interesting gender dynamics.  People who describe the show as "sexist" haven't looked much deeper than the persistent use of the word "doll" to describe a young woman.  But among the leading characters, it is the two female leads -- Adelaide and Sarah -- who show signs of growth and development, of willingness to progress and willingness to learn. 

Their male counterparts, Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson, spend all their lives trying their damnedest not to change, and have to be dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically) into the future by Adelaide and Sarah.  Indeed, it's the women who call all the important shots in these relationships.

The third key element for me is the demand of the show for half a dozen major production dance numbers, several of them choreographed at the highest level of athleticism.

Director/choreographer Donna Feore has once again demonstrated her mastery of staging musicals in the Stratford Festival's classic Festival theatre, a rather small thrust stage which at first glance doesn't seem overly friendly to the idea of large-scale production numbers.

The energy and momentum of the dances are dazzling.  As men did repeated backflips, I caught myself thinking that one miscalculation would send them flying off the stage -- and a second later, one did slide off the edge, rolling over onto his face in the same smooth movement which made it plain that the slide was intentional.  The Hot Box Girls were polished and professional in their set numbers, where some productions will make them a little clumsy as if they are in the lowest tier of the nightclub business.  This Hot Box plainly lived in the top drawer.

When it comes to the major characters of the show, the honours of the night definitely went to Sean Arbuckle as Nathan Detroit, and to Bonnie Jordan, subbing into the role of Miss Adelaide.  Each one had great solo moments, in both dialogue and singing, but the interplay between the two in their shared scenes that was hilarious.

Jordan was most memorable in one of the highly amusing numbers of the show, Take Back Your Mink, a song-and-dance where choreography, staging, costuming, and singing intersected to near perfection.

Where the show went slightly flat was with the other lead couple of Evan Buliung as Sky Masterson and Alexis Gordon as Sarah Brown.  Both are good singers and dancers, but their performances lacked a little zip and go, and their interactions didn't seem to generate much chemistry.  What I felt was especially lacking was any sense of how hard the two of them try to fight against the magnetism that is drawing them towards each other.

Among the supporting cast there were a few standouts too.  Laurie Murdoch, in a Stratford debut role, found some lovely understated moments of human connection as Arvide Abernathy.  Steve Ross scored some good moments as Nicely Nicely Johnson, especially in the classic eleven o'clock number, Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat.  Beau Dixon absolutely dominated the stage in the crap game scene as Big Jule.

In sum: an entertaining evening of theatre, some fantastic dancing, great singing, and plenty of amusing comedy, albeit with a few slacker moments.

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