Guys & Dolls "In my humble opinion, it is the must-see show on the West End at the moment. If you can get a ticket!" @_bridgetheatre

Last Friday night Stuart and I found ourselves promenading around the Bridge Theatre watching Guys & Dolls - "one of the greatest musicals of all time. It has more hit songs, more laughs and more romance than any show ever written." Well, I'm not sure I would go quite that far but glitzy London Bridge Quarter was certainly rocking the boat. It was nearly flawless.

 

As you, dear reader, will no doubt be aware, if you have read me previous musings, I like a show. A big show. A musical with lots of punch. A throw your hands on the air all-singing, all-dancing, laugh a minute, gem of a show. And boy, this was one such show. It is deserving of all its five-start reviews.

 

We laughed, we sang along, we danced with the actors, we laughed some more. It was colourful, beautifully acted, amazingly sung, and even the show's sexism was largely turned on its head dispelling many memories of previous dodgy productions I could mention.

 

The plot is simple - in 1950s New York the men like to gamble, but the Salvation Army is there to save their souls. Our anti-hero Sky Masterson (hunky Andrew Richardson) takes a bet from Nathan Detroit (Daniel Mays) that he can woe Sally Army cold-fish Sally (geddit?) Brown. He tricks Sally (stunning Celinde Schoenmaker) to meeting him for dinner – in Havana! Sally brushes him off but eventually falls for Sky. Sky then falls for Sally. Both then try to change. So far, so Grease.

 

We then get taken on a whirlwind tour of Manhattan's seedy night clubs, midnight prayer meetings, and (most hilariously) to a Havana gay night club. The energy levels never drop. And of course, a happy romance is on the cards.

 

Nicholas Hytner has transformed the space so we were totally immersed as we moved among the action; its platforms rising up to reveal New York City’s bars, clubs and street corners. We loved it.

 

All the cast are great, although my personal highlight was Detroit's showgirl fiancé Miss Adelaide (the incomparable Marisha Wallace). Every song Wallace sang was a show-stopper. We were open-mouthed at both the fabulously rude A Bushel and a Peck and the super sexy Take Back Your Mink. 

 

Of course, the songs Luck Be Your Lady, Sit Down You're Rockin' The Boat (two encores), and If I Were a Bell got the crowd singing along.

 

In my humble opinion, it is the must-see show on the West End at the moment. If you can get a ticket!