Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour
Guys and Dolls hit the Jackpot
What a joy, indeed, what a breath of fresh air it is, to see a musical blissfully untainted by the current obsession with politics and drudgery. Here instead is a night dripping in technicolour exuberance and peppered with jokes that managed the remarkable feat of eliciting audible chuckles from yours truly, a hardened cynic whose laugh muscles are usually as dormant as my gym membership.
Miss Adelaide’s Hot Box nightclub
Here was a Sydney evening, so theatrically moody that Fleet Steps seemed plucked from the pages of some dystopian novel, all storm clouds billowing ominously above a skyline that screamed Blade Runner meets Opera Australia. But in glorious contradiction, right in the midst of this dark magnificence, squats a gloriously incongruous yellow taxi. And then the taxi’s boot opens with gusto, spilling forth a dazzling stage like some fabulous surrealist magician’s trick and offering the entrance of the sparklingly sordid splendour of Miss Adelaide’s Hot Box nightclub.
With a flourish of sequins and an extravaganza of flouncy skirts and riotously bright suits, the cast burst forth, a joyous rebellion against all things drab, dull, and drearily Covid-esque. Who would’ve guessed, amid this vibrant chaos, just how many earworms Frank Loesser smuggled into the soundtrack? “Bushel and a Peck,” “Luck Be a Lady,” “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat” – it’s a medley dangerously catchy enough to cause a common cold all by itself.
Cody Simpson as Sky Masterton
Then we have Cody Simpson, pop idol and Olympic hopeful, which really is the most wonderfully absurd hybrid, something like a unicorn moonlighting as an accountant. Casting him as Sky Masterson seemed, initially, like a gamble as reckless as the craps games in the show itself, yet what an ace roll it proved to be. Simpson, charm personified in a sharp suit, has an effortless stage presence, gliding around with a silky baritone that, teamed with Annie Aitken’s sweetly soaring soprano in “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” floats so enchantingly through the harbour air, even the bats paused mid-swoop to listen.
Bobby Fox as Nathan Detroit
And as insurance against disaster (or at least a stagey mishap) stands Bobby Fox, irresistibly slippery as Nathan Detroit, the perennial bachelor whose pathological fear of wedding bells provides the evening’s lovably ridiculous running joke. Fox is a born hustler on stage, an energetic delight of nervous charm and comic timing.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Guys & Dolls without Miss Adelaide, the eternally sniffling, nightclub star and long-suffering fiancée. Angelina Thomson bravely battles both her character’s perpetual sinus infection and Sydney Harbour’s sprawling stage; while not entirely victorious, her plucky comic spirit more than compensates, winning her cheers aplenty.
Some critics might tut-tut over the musical’s somewhat dated plotline, betting on a girl’s heart and redemption by the love of a good, patient woman, but honestly, complaining that Guys & Dolls feels antiquated is akin to fussing over Henry VIII’s inconvenient tendency to decapitate rather than generously pension off his spouses. What next – Marie Antoinette swapping guillotines for afternoons whisking batter in a chintzy kitchen?
Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ delightful Runyonesque dialogue
The old tropes remain because they still ring true. Aren’t there still gangsterish types like Big Jule? Missionaries zealously saving wayward souls? Colourfully ambiguous characters like Sky Masterson (alias Oberdeier, bless him), scoundrels with hidden hearts of gold? These archetypes are evergreen, and here they’re given a lusty new life thanks to Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ delightfully quirky, Runyonesque dialogue. Admittedly, in the staid walls of the Save-a-Soul mission, things dip slightly in energy, but only momentarily, just enough to remind us that even perfection needs a breather.
But the star turn, without a doubt, is the dazzling set design by Brian Thomson, which elevates the orchestra, not hidden shamefully below stage like errant offspring, but proudly on show, towering gloriously above the fray, giving full rein to Guy Simpson’s delicious orchestral arrangements. Jim Atkins’ impeccable sound design ensures every lush note reaches even the bats up above.
Jennifer Irwin’s spectacular costumes
Add to this Jennifer Irwin’s spectacular costumes, so flamboyantly stylish they could make even Liberace seem modest. and Kelley Abbey’s choreography, joyously celebrating Broadway’s golden age with more vim and vigour than a Zumba class after a double espresso, and what you have is spectacle itself, zhuzhed to maximum brilliance.
Surreal Sydney
In the end, across from Sydney’s Opera House under the surreal spectacle of bats swooping across a sky glowing with metropolitan drama, transported to a romanticised 1950s New York filled with gamblers and showgirls, cynical missionaries and charming rogues, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Guys & Dolls on the harbour is pure, unapologetic escapism. And Lord knows, in this world, that’s precisely the tonic we need.
