Guys and Dolls: Theatre Review

Guys and Dolls is a classic musical that every musical theatre fan will have heard of. It’s currently having a revival at the Bridge Theatre in London, with a new immersive production. It’s a great show, and a really innovative production. Here’s my Guys and Dolls theatre review.

Overview of Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls is a well-known musical. It’s been around since the 1950s, with various stage productions in that time. I saw the production at the Bridge Theatre in London in 2024, and thought this was an excellent production. However, I still wouldn’t put Guys and Dolls in my top 20 musical of all time. So my Guys and Dolls theatre review is fairly positive, but a bit mixed.

Guys and Dolls follows the story of gamblers in New York in the 1920s/1930s. There’s Nathan, who runs some of the gambling games. He’s engaged to Adelaide, and they’ve been engaged for the last 14 years. There’s a recurring theme throughout the show of their long engagement and whether they’ll finally get married. Adelaide is keen to get married – especially as she’s told her mother that they’ve been married for 12 years and have 5 children together. There are several attempts to get married, or elope, with amusing consequences.

The other main story throughout the show is Sky and Sarah. Sarah is part of the ‘Save a soul’ mission. Nathan gets Sky to try to take Sarah out on a date as part of a bet, because Nathan thinks that it will be impossible for Sky. However, Sky manages to take Sarah on a date – to Cuba. The two characters start to care for each other, but as always there are bumps in the road as they try to be together.

The two main love stories are key to this production, alongside other characters from the gambling underworld and also the mission. There’s lots of songs and dances, and good-natured frivolity, in this fun musical.

Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre, London

What I liked about Guys and Dolls

The production at the Bridge Theatre in London in 2024 was an immersive theatre experience, which I thought worked really well. I sat in the seats above the stage, which were non-immersive but gave a great view of everything. The seats were on all 4 sides of a large square floor. On the floor there was audience standing, and the characters in the show interacting with the standing audience. Various parts of the stage would raise at different points in the show. And the standing audience were constantly ushered to be standing where the action was happening at that point – and then hastily ushered away when a different part of the stage was about to rise. It was an interesting way of doing theatre, and felt very different to the traditional model of having lots of seats in front of a stage.

The singing and dancing in the show was really good. I thought the costumes were amazing as well. So much of the show was really bright and colourful, as well as being fun and engaging. Visually it was a great show. My favourite part was definitely the ‘Rock the boat’ song in the second half. It was a really fun, energetic and visually good song. I also enjoyed the ending, after the cast had taken their bows, where the stage went completely flat and the standing audience were invited to join in the dancing. It felt like a good party atmosphere.

Audience participation

Audience participation was definitely a strong theme in this production, with some scenes involving audience interaction. For example, in one of the scenes where people from the Mission were giving speeches and handing out leaflets, the standing audience were used as part of the audience in the show. There were other times where there would be an actor hidden in the standing audience who would call out at a point in the show. And there was a particularly amusing moment when Nathan blows his nose in a tissue and throws it to audience, and it landed on woman’s head, and he said sorry in character – but I’m not sure if that was meant to happen!

What I wasn’t so sure about

I enjoyed the show, but I wouldn’t say that the plot or the songs were my favourite. That’s just my personal preference of the type of musical I enjoy. I definitely enjoyed how visual and active and fun it all was – it was a great production of Guys and Dolls. But I think this musical just isn’t one of my top ones.

I think it would have been good in a way to be in the standing audience to feel immersied in the production. But I imagine it would have got very uncomfortable after 3 hours of standing. And you’d also have to constantly keep an eye on other people and the ushers to make sure you move when you need to. If you weren’t paying attention, you could end up standing in the wrong place when that part of the stage was about to be raise, and that would be very awkward. Sat in the seats a bit further back, I felt like you could see it all clearly but not need to think about moving every few minutes.

Would I recommend seeing Guys and Dolls

I’d recommend seeing Guys and Dolls, especially if you’ve never seen this musical before. It’s a famous show, and was enjoyable. This immersive production at the Bridge Theatre in London was really enjoyable, and a great production of this musical.