Guys and Dolls at the Shaw Festival

Guys and Dolls

It was told to me that I was seeing Guys and Dolls, at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, about thirty minutes before we left for the show. Having never heard of it before, I was not particularly excited, nor was I too enthusiastic about the two hour drive to see a show I had no interest in. However, my mum informed me that this show had quite good reviews, and a quick look at Wikipedia told me that this show had won a tony award for best musical, so I assumed it would be decent, if nothing else. 

In the end, I was left with very mixed feelings about this show. Overall, I was bored to death during a majority of it (particularly the first act). The show did have its humorous and entertaining moments, but unfortunately, that was not enough to save it. I think that the main problem is the script; it's repetitive (unnecessarily so) to the point that you want to inform the playwright that you are not, in fact, a six year old child that needs to be reminded of the same thing every minute. Guys and Dolls isn't dated, per say. Nor do I want to say it has no relevance anymore. But there is no question about it; this is not an engaging musical. The main issue I had with it is that it's a 'performance musical'. The actors stop everything to sing to the audience. The character is abandoned in favour of singing as if they were in a concert. It ruined the continuity, in my opinion.

The thing about the Shaw Festival is that I've been going there since I was a small child, and cast members tend to stick around. Usually, I see two or three performers I'm familiar with. This time, it was only one. I saw Elodie Gillet, who played Sarah in Guys and Dolls, in High Society (one of my all-time favourite musicals) years ago. I expected to enjoy her performance, but I found her singing, though well done, out of place. When she was singing, she was no longer the character. She was just singing. The actors I enjoyed in this performance were those playing the more minor characters: Nathan Detroit's Henchmen were hysterical, as was Miss Adelaide. 

All in all, I wouldn't recommend Guys and Dolls. If, after a show, I think that I would rather have been home cleaning my room, it was not worth the trip.