‘Offered the splendiferous new staging ‘Guys and Dolls’ has been given, my heart sings, my soul roars and I feel tingly good all over. Baby, I’m a bell, and I’m ringing.”
– The New York Post
“If you have ever searched Times Square to find that vanished Broadway of lovable gangsters, wisecracking dolls and neon-splashed dawns, you must not miss the ‘Guys and Dolls’ that roared into the old neighborhood last night. This is an enchanting rebirth of the show that defines Broadway dazzle.”
– The New York Times
BOY, oh, boy. Broad way hasn’t seen re views like this in years. This revival of “Guys and Dolls” is going to run and run.
And it did – from 1992 to 1995, racking up 1,143 performances and winning four Tony Awards, including Best Revival. It also ushered in what turned out to be a 15-year boom on Broadway.
But what of the “Guys and Dolls” of 2009?
Well, the struggle begins.
The current revival opened Sunday night during a blizzard – a blizzard of negative reviews in the major dailies.
Clive Barnes may have been “ringing” in 1992. But on Monday, Elisabeth Vincentelli, The Post’s new chief drama critic, was yawning.
“How can something
so zippy be so tedious?” she wondered of this production, directed by Des McAnuff.
“Guys and Dolls” took in about $80,000 on Monday, not a banner day for a show that cost $10 million to produce and more than $500,000 a week to run.
But despite an anemic economy in which many tepidly received shows are likely to fold quickly, “Guys and Dolls” is going to make a run for it.
“I’m not misty-eyed,” says Howard Panter, the show’s lead producer. “We’re hardheaded and businesslike, and we cut our losses. But not this time. We’re upping our commitment to the show because we believe that the real paying public is loving it.”
A jolly impresario from England, Panter is the head of the Ambassador Theatre Group, which owns several theaters in London and has produced dozens of shows.
He’s regularly listed as one of the 10 most powerful people in British theater, and he’s making an aggressive play to become a force on Broadway as well.
He’s opening a much-anticipated production of Ionesco’s “Exit the King” starring Geoffrey Rush in April, and he’s been scouting locations for a new theater complex in New York.
Panter’s got deep pockets, and he’s going to spend a chunk of change this week rolling out an aggressive “Guys and Dolls” ad campaign trumpeting the show’s good reviews, including one from John Lahr in The New Yorker.
Panter says he’ll give “Guys and Dolls” at least seven weeks to find an audience.
“Obviously, we’re going to evaluate the situation as we go along,” he says.
Others are skeptical. Maybe in a strong economy a popular classic like “Guys and Dolls” might withstand bad notices. But in the midst of a recession, bad reviews are going to sting longer as people seize on any reason to keep their money in their wallets.
In addition, “Guys and Dolls” is up against two other brand-name revivals: “West Side Story,” which is generating pretty good word of mouth, and “Hair,” which the critics loved in Central Park.
“I don’t think there’s enough of an audience to support all three,” says a veteran producer. “And you can’t count on tourists in the spring, because it doesn’t look like many are coming.”
Panter, ever the optimist, gets the final word: ” ‘Guys and Dolls’ is great musical-comedy theater. It’s the tonic the city needs right now, and I believe it will please a great many people – and you can quote me on that!”