Guys & Dolls

My favourite musical, bar none, is Frank Loesser's Guys & Dolls. My parents took me to see it at the National Theatre in London, it must have been in the early 1980s, and it was superb.  I loved it so much that in 1990 when I noticed posters advertising a student production of it in a small town in Korea (where I happened to have wound up), I leapt at the chance to see it again - and even performed entirely in Korean it was still superb.  My biggest regret is that I never got my act together to go and see the West End revival (starring Ewan McGregor, no less) a few years ago.

Naturally, then, when I found out Guys & Dolls, Jr would be playing at the Middle School, I had to have a ticket.

So - how did a cast of 11-14 year olds make out with the world's best ever stage musical?

Were they as good as that National Theatre production?  Nope.

Were they as good as a bunch of Korean college students?  Hmm - not quite.

But did those kids put their hearts and souls into every number?  You betcha!

And did the audience raise the roof cheering at the end?  Hell, yeah!

Star of the show?  Ever-lovin' Adelaide, by a Broadway mile.  But all the lead players did a fine, fine job.

And given that it was a musical and that I famously have trouble keeping it together during songs, one more question...

Not knowing a single one of these kids: did I cry?

Well, what do you think?