Review Roundup: West End's GUYS & DOLLS

The West End transfer of GUYS & DOLLS opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 6, for a limited run through March 12. Sophie Thompson and Jamie Parker reprise their roles as Miss Adelaide and Sky Masterson, with David Haig as Nathan Detroit and Siubhan Harrison as Sarah Brown. Let's see what the critics had to say:

Neil Norman, Express: Jamie Parker still rules as the slick gambler Sky Masterson and Sophie Thompson continues to delight with her gleefully grotesque Miss Adelaide, whose swooping delivery and physical eccentricity suggests she has been studying the US comedian Phyllis Diller.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: The show teems with funny lines such as that delivered by a sharp-suited hood who, seeking to aid the elopement of Nathan Detroit with his long-time fiancee Miss Adelaide, tactfully announces: "I'll lend you my getaway car." The wit of the book extends to Frank Loesser's music and lyrics, which are driven by character rather than events. A classic example is Adelaide's Lament, in which a showgirl's frustration at being as permanently engaged as a box-office telephone leads psychosomatically to a constant cold. Even a big showstopper, such as Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat, allows the song and dance to emerge naturally from the ecstatic vision of a habitual gambler.

Paul Taylor, The Independent: The dodgy dice-rollers in Gordon Greenberg's snappy, fast-paced production are a constant source of delight as they they convey this comic incongruity. Packing out the mission not from piety but because they have been won in a bet, this bunch of gambling scapegraces take the roof off as Gavin Spokes's adorable Nicely-Nicely conducts them through reprise after show-stopping reprise of "Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat".

Stuart Black, The Londonist: Sensibly, it doesn't try to compete with such starry casting - going for lesser known actors who have charm in spades and can sing the heck out of the songs. For the record, it's David Haigh and Sophie Thompson - who you might remember as randy newly-weds Bernard and Lydia in Four Weddings And A Funeral - here playing card-shark Nathan Detroit and his fourteen-year-fiancé Miss Adelaide. Both are great.

Mark Shenton, The Stage: The performances of its three other principals are far more successful. David Haig, new to the company as Nathan Detroit, has just the right combination of bouncy charm, desperation and mischievousness. Jamie Parker, as professional gambler Sky Masterson, is an effortless crooner, while Siubhan Harrison is an earnest mission-doll Sarah who melts delightfully (and lets her hair down, in every sense) when love strikes her unexpectedly.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: No less dashing, if a lot less famous, Jamie Parker is pretty much everything you want in this part: possessed of a sly charisma that combines street-hardened wiliness with crucial residues of boyish innocence and gentlemanly courtesy.

Michael Coveney, Whatsonstage: Whereas Julia McKenzie and Imelda Staunton built the cold itself into the "Lament" lyric, Thompson snuffs her sniffles in broader strokes, and "Take back your mink, take back your poils; what makes you think that I am one of those goils?" gets it laughs only in the surprise, haunch-handling striptease and the stand-in ermine draped round Valentine's neck in the pit. The musical finesse of Frank Loesser's wonderful songs is best served up in Parker's Sinatra-like crooning of the galvanic "Luck Be a Lady" and his clever ornamentation in "Sue Me" ("What can you do me?").

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