Luck, Love, and High Kicks Explode Across Stratford’s Sensational “Guys and Dolls” – front mezz junkies, Theater News

The Stratford Festival Review: Donna Feore’s exhilarating revival transforms the beloved musical into a thrilling explosion of comedy, romance, and show-stopping theatrical spectacle

By Ross

The moment the stage erupts from a grey-toned flash of sailors, police officers, gamblers, and chorus girls into a blazing rush of colour and light, something electric tears through the Festival Theatre. It feels like a thunder clap directly into the bloodstream of one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals, igniting the audience with swagger, rhythm, and theatrical confidence. From that fabulous opening shot of adrenaline, Donna Feore’s spectacular Stratford Festival production of Guys and Dolls kicks itself into high gear, refusing to loosen its grip for even a second as every laugh lands and every dance number detonates. Every performance feels completely lived-in, original, and larger than life, as the entire evening moves confidently forward with the heartbeat of a city forever chasing luck, romance, and one more win or impossible dream.

Feore (StratFest’s Chicago) directs and choreographs the production with astonishing energy and precision, uncovering fresh excitement inside a musical already overflowing with charm and wit. The show, as we all know, is hilariously well written, both in Frank Loesser’s spectacular music and lyrics and in the clever book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Now, thanks to the Stratford Festival, the show is magnificently revitalized and electrified, elevating the piece to an almost feverish dance-party pitch, without losing a bit of its sweet charm and ingenious dialogue. Stratford’s revival makes the material feel newly alive, uncovering fresh excitement without sacrificing any of the musical’s heart.

Steve Ross (StratFest’s La Cage Aux Folles) and Gabriel Antonacci (StratFest’s Forgiveness) nearly steal the entire evening from the get-go as Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreet. Their comic timing is extraordinary, constantly energizing the production with effortless humour and vaudevillian rhythm. Alongside Devon Michael Brown’s excellent Rusty Charlie, the trio launches the production with a wonderfully integrated and musically sharp “Fugue for Tinhorns,” immediately establishing the show’s comic momentum and restless sense of possibility. “Can do, can do,” sings Ross’s Nicely-Nicely, and that optimistic motto seems to echo throughout Feore’s entire production. There is a determined confidence running through every scene, every dance break, and every comic exchange, as though the company is continually pushing itself toward bigger laughs, bigger risks, and bigger rewards. Ross, later in Act Two, proves especially unforgettable during the ‘dreamy’ show-stopping “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” which erupts into one of the evening’s most thunderous, testifying proclamations. His performance is playful, commanding, and joyfully oversized, hungrily chewing each verse into a full theatrical eruption.

The set-up is exceptional, dropping us down perfectly amid the bustling underworld of Prohibition-era New York City. Guys and Dolls follows a colourful collection of gamblers, hustlers, nightclub performers, and a band of marching missionaries whose lives collide through romance, desperation, and an ever-moving craps game searching for a safe place to land. Yet the musical is really about love and acceptance. One love story begins like a roll of the dice, with a reckless bet made between slick gambler Sky Masterson and a desperate-for-some cash Nathan Detroit, with Salvation Army missionary Sarah Brown becoming Masterson’s unlikely prize at the centre. The other has been unfolding for fourteen long years between Nathan Detroit and his eternally patient fiancée, Miss Adelaide. And around those four spin a world of gangsters, showgirls, floating dice games, and dreamers trying to stay one step ahead of trouble.

In the center spotlight stands the sensational Jennifer Rider-Shaw as Miss Adelaide, delivering a performance overflowing with comic brilliance, emotional warmth, and flawless musical precision. Rider-Shaw (StratFest’s Spamalot) turns every line into a miniature comic event while grounding Adelaide’s frustration and devotion in something deeply human. Her performance never settles for caricature. Beneath the hilarious sneezes, emotional outbursts, and wonderfully exaggerated complaints sits a woman exhausted from loving a man who simply cannot get out of his own way. Every time Rider-Shaw steps onto the stage, the production seems to surge with even greater life and engagement.

Shuffling beside her, Mark Uhre (StratFest’s Something Rotten!) beautifully matches her every comic sneeze with a finely calibrated Nathan Detroit, delivering a sweetly anxious cad full of nervous charm and heartfelt affection. Together, the pair creates the evening’s strongest emotional connection, particularly during the explosive hilarity of “Sue Me,” which practically kills us all with its comic clarity. “I could honestly die.” Their chemistry feels lived-in, messy, funny, and affectionate all at once. Feore wisely allows their relationship to anchor the production emotionally, giving the audience something genuine to hold onto beneath all the dazzling spectacle.

With Uhre’s chronically engaged gambler, Nathan, and Rider-Shaw’s breathtakingly great Adelaide leading the laugh and hit parade so perfectly, it is difficult for any storyline to compete for the audience’s affection. Dan Chameroy (StratFest’s Annie) takes on the charming scoundrel Sky Masterson with considerable confidence and charisma, finding an appealing early chemistry with Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane’s Sarah Brown. Sinclair-Brisbane (StratFest’s Sense and Sensibility) brings warmth, intelligence, and vulnerability to the role, particularly as Sarah begins recognizing the possibility of joy beyond rigid certainty. She is aided considerably by Stephen Patterson‘s charming and deeply affectionate Brother Arvide Abernathy, whose gentle nudging presence at the Mission helps us better understand both Sarah’s devotion and the community she is fighting to protect.

Yet while her romance with Sky generates genuine Havana heat, it never quite maintains the winning hand it initially seems poised to play. The audience’s heart continually drifts back toward Nathan and Adelaide, whose wonderfully lived-in connection anchors the production with irresistible comic and emotional force. Even Sarah finds some of her strongest moments elsewhere, particularly during the delightful “Marry the Man Today” duet with Rider-Shaw, a number that emerges as one of the production’s most charming musical pleasures.

Feore’s choreography continuously pushes the production into thrilling territory. “The Crapshooters’ Dance” slides in like a full-scale theatrical explosion early in the second act, sending acrobatic bodies flying across the stage with breathtaking athleticism and precision. One particular pinstriped gambler (Devon Michael Brown) launches himself through the air so spectacularly that entire sections of the audience audibly gasp. Holding a winning hand of her own, Rider-Shaw leads the Hot Box dancers magnificently through “A Bushel and a Peck” and “Take Back Your Mink,” turning both numbers into lavish, hilarious showcases overflowing with personality and style.

The visual world supporting all of this theatrical chaos is consistent and equally remarkable. Set designer Michael Gianfrancesco (StratFest’s Richard II) creates a fluid, constantly shifting cityscape bursting with movement and neon-lit possibility, while Dana Osborne’s glorious costumes flood the stage with bold colours, sharp tailoring, and dazzling textures. Bonnie Beecher’s lighting design transforms the Festival Theatre into a pulsing nightlife fantasy playground filled with smoky street corners, flashing signs, and dreamlike bursts of underground glamour. Haley Parcher’s sound design ensures every lyric and comic exchange lands crisply, even amid the production’s enormous scale. Under the musical direction of Franklin Brasz (StratFest’s Rent), the orchestra attacks Loesser’s beloved score with thrilling force and impeccable style, giving the music tremendous richness and momentum.

The production embraces not only the musical’s strong songbook but also its broad comedy wholeheartedly, including its exaggerated ideas surrounding romance, masculinity, and marriage. Yet beneath all the jokes and chaos lives something surprisingly tender about the way these characters continually choose one another despite disappointment, uncertainty, and fear. Adelaide steadfastly loves Nathan even while fully recognizing his flaws, as does Nathan with his own. Sarah slowly discovers that vulnerability may carry its own kind of grace, and Sky learns that sincerity requires far more courage than charm. Even surrounded by gamblers rolling dice through the night, the musical continually returns to the frightening gamble of trusting another person with your heart and soul.

That emotional sincerity is what ultimately makes Stratford’s Guys and Dolls feel so exhilarating. Beneath the spectacular choreography, the explosive laughter, the glorious music, and the endless parade of high-flying theatrical delights beats a deeply affectionate belief in human connection itself. By the time the company gathers together for the final celebration, the Festival Theatre feels like one giant nightclub crowd joyfully swept into the same impossible wager. “Can do, can do,” sings Nicely-Nicely near the beginning of the evening, and that hopeful refrain echoes through every corner of Feore’s production. It is the sound of artists throwing themselves wholeheartedly into a beloved musical and finding fresh life in every roll of the dice.