Nicholas Hytner to stage immersive GUYS & DOLLS at London's Bridge Theatre, beginning Feb 2023

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/9/22 at 11:23pm

This sounds very exciting! (And contingent on COVID not rearing its ugly head...) Broadway has been due for a good Guys & Dolls since the last one opened, so perhaps there could be a future life if this is a hit across the pond (with or without the immersive elements).

It's got a great team attached: choreography by Arlene Phillips (Starlight Express), set & costume design by Bunny Christie (Company, Curious Incident), lighting by Paule Constable (Les Mis, Angels in America), music direction by Tom Brady (Show Boat), and orchestrations by Charlie Rosen (A Strange Loop, Moulin Rouge). No cast yet.

One other item worth highlighting in this age of revisals....... Hytner said the show’s book will stay as it is. “Some of its sexual politics might feel like it’s 70 years old but there’s a way of dealing with that in the way you act it. You can say a line with a certain degree of ironic distance and you’re 99 percent of the way there.”.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 6/9/22 at 11:26pm

"Set design by Bunny Christie..."

That's it, color me intrigued. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/9/22 at 11:29pm

EDSOSLO858 said: ""Set design by Bunny Christie..." That's it, color me intrigued."

They say the neon lights are bright on a Bunny Christie set!

[blaxx]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 1:28am

Yet, environmental and immersive are two very different things...

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 2:11am

I've only ever seen the last revival and thought this show was insanely boring and uneventful, so here's hoping. Love the logo, and love Bunny's work. So I'd see it for that alone. 

[Quinn Wilson]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 6:18am

All I am saying is Denee Benton as Sarah and Bonnie Milligan as Adelaide could solve a lot of our problems. 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 7:40am

I really need the word immersive to stop being used to describe theatre. Even immersive theatre companies have basically stopped using it. It’s just a buzz word. If they were doing a truly immersive production of Guys and Dolls, it would have to be entirely rewritten to support such a structural change.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 8:06am

Hytner says the audience will get to party with the cast, and become part of the show as it takes place in so many famous public spaces. Not sure how that isn’t immersive.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 8:14am

Party with the cast?  I'll be able to gamble?  Hit on a hotbox girl?    Sounds like on stage seating to me.  

 

I LOVE Guys & Dolls, it's adorable and populated with colorful characters - I don't need a gimmick (of course, that's still to be seen - their ideas might be amazing.)  But I grew up with it: performed it more than a half dozen times, directed or choreographed it almost as many - but, it likely has lost its shine and could fail to spark the interest of young peeps.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 8:32am

If this is like how they’ve done previous “immersive” shows, there won’t be a stage. The stalls will be removed and the entire ground section will transformed into the staging area. 
 

I can’t wait. 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 8:45am

Jordan Catalano said: "If this is like how they’ve done previous “immersive” shows, there won’t be a stage. The stalls will be removed and the entire ground section will transformed into the staging area. I can’t wait."

I was thinking the same thing. "Immersive" in the way the current revival of Cabaret is playing. I mean, it's not like we're all going to head to Cuba or anything.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 8:54am

No, I’d think this is different from “Cabaret” since that still has a stage. 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 9:16am

Standing around for three hours without even a standing room rail to lean on? Yikes. No thanks.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 9:17am

ColorTheHours048 said: "I really need the word immersive to stop being used to describe theatre. Even immersive theatre companies have basically stopped using it. It’s just a buzz word. If they were doing a truly immersive production of Guys and Dolls, it would have to be entirely rewritten to support such a structural change."


What you might be missing here is that the British have a separate word to describe shows like Sleep No More, Then She Fell, etc. - those are "promenade" shows. Consequently, I've noticed anecdotally that the British are much more liberal with the word "immersive" - because to them, it's not a category, or a form with its own conventions; it's more of a literal adjective, to be used whenever the audience is made to feel any degree of "immersion" from the design/concept. 

Granted, a lot of American companies probably also try to capitalize on the trendiness of "immersive" theatre by using the word too liberally - which is more to your point, I guess. But in cases like this, I think it mostly comes down to the linguistic different above. 

Updated On: 6/10/22 at 09:17 AM

[JasonC3]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 9:19am

Do premium tickets let you shoot craps with Nicely Nicely?

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 9:42am

Interesting that they are pointedly referencing that the show is (on paper) set in the fifties and they’re leaning into that. I’ve only ever seen one production actually decide to set it there, as opposed to the late twenties or early thirties when the stories were written.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 9:47am

I’m not missing anything. I know exactly what they’re talking about because I’m capable of gleaning context. If there is a mix of seats and standing, it’s not immersive in my opinion. If Brits use the word differently, that’s fine, but my point still stands that it’s a buzz word.

Environmental? Maybe, if the environment is curated in the way that they’ve set up the Kit Kat Club’s entrance. But from the way they’re describing it, it just sounds like a slightly non-traditional staging of Guys and Dolls where some people pay less money to sit in various sections on the stage. (And I think the fact that the “immersive” tickets cost less should be considered. The onstage seats for Spring Awakening back in the day were dirt cheap for a reason.)

[Owen22]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 9:48am

I know this sounds ageist, but how old is Arlene Phillips? I'd be much happier if they found someone Innovative and new to choreograph the show.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 10:04am

I can only imagine how "immersive" the scene in the sewers will be.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 10:19am

ColorTheHours048 said: "I’m not missing anything. I know exactly what they’re talking about because I’m capable of gleaning context. If there is a mix of seats and standing, it’s not immersive in my opinion. If Brits use the word differently, that’s fine, but my point still stands that it’s a buzz word."



I don't doubt that you picked up from the context that they were using the word differently. My point is that there is a specific reason for it, that goes beyond simply bastardizing a trendy term.

Your "opinion" about what counts as immersive is influenced by how the word "immersive" is used in US theatre. Naturally you wouldn't think that "a mix of seats and standing" counts as immersive, just as you wouldn't think a soft, deep fried potato stick counts as a "chip."  

And it makes sense that, because we don't have a separate CATEGORICAL term for shows like Sleep No More, anything that doesn't fit into that category would seem like it's diluting the art form. 

But because they use a completely different term for the FULLY immersive art form ("promenade shows", it doesn't really matter if they use the word "immersive" as a buzz-word, because for them it was only ever just a loose descriptor. So the other art form of fully immersive theatre is not being diluted, from their perspective, by using "immersive" as a buzz word. 

Updated On: 6/10/22 at 10:19 AM

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 10:24am

Just wait until the Save-A-Soul Mission will try to convert all the heathens throughout the night!

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 10:30am

And when the seated audience can’t see the actors because the standing audience is in the way and/or shuffling around? Damn. 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 10:44am

Will the "floating crap game" actually float in the air?

Updated On: 6/10/22 at 10:44 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 10:45am

BorisTomashevsky said: "And when the seated audience can’t see the actors because the standing audience is in the way and/or shuffling around? Damn."

If the seated audience members are in the sections above the stalls, there won’t be a problem seeing anything. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/10/22 at 10:51am

Dollypop said: "I can only imagine how "immersive" the scene in the sewers will be."

Every comment about the semantics of "immersive" is annoying EXCEPT for yours, Dolly. :)