A Hour Upon The Stage: "Call it sad, call it funny, but it's better than even money..."

Guys & Dolls: A Musical in a Weekend

19^th April 2009 at the Y Theatre, Leicester

Cast

Sky Masterson … Luke Barrow

Sarah Brown … Aimee Southin

Nathan Detroit … Ethan Tattersall

Adelaide … Charlotte Hurst

Nicely-Nicely Johnson … Jak Skelly

Benny Southstreet … David Stevens

Lieutenant Brannigan … Devan Fulham

Arvide Abernathy … Stephen Leach

Big Jule … Jason Wilson

Rusty Charlie … David Griffin

General Cartwright … Amy Washington

Angie the Ox … Bradley Setchell

Agatha … Rheanne Thomas

Mimi … Jane Hearst

Harry the Horse … Catherine Moran

Some days after 'The Match Girls' came my first venture into a musical I had actually heard of (admittedly only by way of The Simpsons and Mark Hamill's rendition of "Luke Be a Jedi") was quite challenging due to the performance brief- learn the script in a matter of weeks, with only a three-day weekend with which to block, rehearse and perform. And yet, we managed it. The director, musical director and choreographer were all professionals, while we most of us had limited experience (save for our Nicely-Nicely, whose tap dancing was nothing short of spectacular - he has since made his way to the West End stage). The only minor hitch was my microphone initially not working, Sky's forgetting o the words to Luck Be a Lady (though he recovered and continued admirably) and the fact that several of our male parts had to be played by women (you don't get many men in the youth theatres of today). A challenge, but highly enjoyable, and this time I didn't make the mistake of destroying the script.

Notes

I later worked with several of the cast members on other projects: Luke Barrow (Sky- The Crucible, our A-Level project which I can't remember the name of and Back to the Eighties), Charlotte Hearst (our dry run of The Crucible, in which she played Elizabeth) and Bradley Setchell (Back to the Eighties). I also worked alongside Stephen Leach (Arvide) during my short stint at the Leicester WAVE.

The show is partly uploaded here:
Part One 
Part Two 
Part Three