So I’m not saying a show called ‘Guys and Dolls’ is up there in any woke list of ‘must-sees’ as its set in the 1930s? 40s perhaps, when guys were guys and those-identifying-as-women were called ‘dolls’. Which is a touch too binary for contemporary acceptance. Addressing some as ‘hey: Doll!’ is not acceptable in the workplace. Though a few of the actors looked decidedly less ‘binary’ than did either Marlon Brando or Frank Sinatra in the movie version. Yet I make no judgments nor guess at pronouns. Not me job. And I don’t know if you’re familiar with the storyline, but its a great one. Scumbag ‘gangsters’ all wanting to gamble away whilst a bunch of evangelical Christians go marching by singing hymns and begging people to ‘reform their ungodly ways of liquor’n’gamblin’ for the sake of your eternal soul. Amen’. I’ll add ‘a-whorin” to that just because I want to. Normally, the gangsters would just roll over the Christians, steal the collection boxes, rape the women and put the big bass drum on ebay. But this is a musical so we give it a bit of license. And one of the gangsters acherley falls in love with the Christian babe/doll… woman. Who’d’a thought?? And then… no, no spoilers. You simply couldn’t imagine nor guess. Probably.

But that somewhat simplistic precis doesn’t do the show justice. But like, REALLY doesn’t do the show justice. Because it is simply fucking brilliant. The songs… remarkable, the lyrics brilliantly, award-winningly witty, written back in the day by Frank Loesser, and in this case, the production is a wow. It really is. The cast are fabulous (a word chosen very carefully and in considered manner) and the sets are just… just…

The Bridge Theatre is relatively new for London. Where most of our acting spaces date back to Shakespeare. The world of stage performance didn’t begin with ‘Wicked’ on Broadway, ya know, some of us have been thesping for centuries. And it feels like it in most West End venues. Cramped, overheated, Tudorish, horrible. And the Bridge is a revelation. Also, the ‘stage’ is different, mainly because it doesn’t have one. Just an amazing central floor area with sections which rise and fall depending on who’s standing on them and singing at the time. And they let the paying public ‘mingle’ around the unlifted areas for the full ‘immersive’ experience. I might have considered that if they let you gamble down there but opted instead for a seat.

But here’s the funny thing; The Bridge theatre is, like, right next to Tower Bridge!! I mean, coincidence or what?? So when you come out, this is the view. Which is shit, I grant you, but there were no really good car parks or cranes around.

Happy Thursday

A xxxx