‘Guys and Dolls: In Concert’ review
‘an amazing display of the musical talent in Durham’
TDTC’s Guys and Dolls: In Concert was an amazing display of the musical talent in Durham, and those who weren’t there missed a great night! Guys and Dolls is a story set in New York that explores the worlds of gambling and love. It follows the life of Nathan Detroit (Teni Taiwo) who is trying to find a place for his floating craps game, though his girlfriend, club performer Miss Adelaide (Clara Suss-Francksen) is eager for him to settle down. At the same time, Sky Masterson (Joe Butler-Smith), a friend of Nathan’s, is trying to win over much more conservative Sarah Brown (Francesca Fitton).
The venue, Redhills Durham Miners’ Hall, though not often used for DST shows had a great atmosphere and lent itself nicely to the 1940s setting of Guys and Dolls. It was nice to see the consistency of visual themes from the publicity reflected in the colourful lighting of the space. Additionally, the sound was balanced nicely between the large band and the singers, so congratulations to Production Managers Jonathan Wilson-Downs and Alex McCalmont for executing the technical elements in this more unusual space!
The show opened with a punch of brass in an energetic overture which set the tone for how the band was to continue; they were extremely strong throughout the show, and my commendations go to Musical Director Zac Smith for leading this. Tom Carroll, playing Arvide Abernathy, gave an engaging and apt introduction into the show with his dialogue, kicking off the action wonderfully.
To start the singing, the trio of Bede Capstick, Jamie Duncan, and Louis Williams had voices that blended very successfully together, and Capstick’s effortless charisma was a joy to watch. The next song gave us our introduction the ensemble made up of Matilda Ketterer and Lizzie Dixon who gave awesome harmonies that added nice depth to the music. Acknowledgement should also be given to them for how many songs they had to appear in and how often they were up and down from the stage!
‘I’ll Know’ was perhaps the best vocal performance of the night; Fitton’s high notes were full of clarity and floated wonderfully above the orchestration, and Butler-Smith's singing was captivating whilst his acting ability was equally demonstrated through the song. His American accent, too, was impressively unfaltering.
This was followed magnificently by Clara Suss-Francksen as Miss Adelaide in a gorgeous coral dress, who throughout the show demonstrated such incredible vocal control through both the strength of her voice and the way that she seamlessly blended into her higher register. She gave the strongest acting performance of the evening and is certainly a force to watch out for. Later on, when Teni Taiwo joined her for ‘Sue Me’, their quarrelsome chemistry was enjoyable and I wish there had been more opportunity for Taiwo to show off his voice, as it was truly wonderful.
The hotbox sequences had some fun touches of choreography snuck in which added some more visual variation to the concert setting of the piece. Praise must go to Director Charlotte Blair who along with Zac Smith was able to put the evening together under extremely tight time conditions.
In all, the concert was extremely successful, with every performer giving an extremely good vocal performance. Though I had limited knowledge of Guys and Dolls prior to the evening, I had a lot of fun, and it was a joy to watch!
By Harriet Miller.