As Miss Adelaide, Jane Krakowski is sweet, sultry, funny. Ewan McGregor’s Sky Masterson has moves and charisma but not what you’d call a potent voice. “I’ll Know” is undersung by McGregor and Jenna Russell’s Sarah. But Rob Ashford’s choreography is often inspired, and there’s a visceral rise in the show’s momentum as it goes. The eleven-o’clock number “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat” never misses—still, Grandage and Ashford outdo themselves here, piling on chorus after chorus, throwing the company and scenery into motion, building to a full revivalist frenzy, then, in a flash, snapping the entire stage back to the moment before the number began. On opening night, that deftly turned bit of stagecraft earned the most raucous ovation I’ve heard in ages— and the most richly deserved.
Billy Elliot may deserve a trip to New York; Guys and Dolls unequivocally does. It’s been more than a decade since Broadway audiences got to enjoy the show’s just-about-perfect score and the funniest book around (for which original director George S. Kaufman rarely gets the credit he’s due). Seeing it in London made me wish it would play Manhattan again soon, in a production more consistent than Grandage’s. Seeing it also sparked some provincial Yankee pride. Impressive as much of the show may be, if Billy Elliot really is the Brits’ best, Guys and Dolls suggests they’ve still got a ways to go.
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