McGregor Makes Musical Debut in 2005 Guys & DollsDate: 8 November 2004
As previously tipped (See The Goss, 28 Oct 2004), Scottish screen star Ewan McGregor (pictured) will make his musical stage debut in next year’s West End revival of classic Broadway musical Guys and Dolls. Although a venue and exact dates have not yet been finalised, McGregor has been confirmed to start as Sky Masterson in the production, directed by Donmar Warehouse director Michael Grandage as the first Donmar musical originated outside of its own 250-seat auditorium (See News, 17 Jun 2004).
McGregor has not been seen on the London stage since the 1999 Hampstead Theatre production of Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, which transferred to the West End. He’s best known internationally for his big screen credits such as Star Wars, Big Fish, Down With Love, Black Hawk Down, Little Voice, A Life Less Ordinary,Trainspotting, Rogue Trader, Brassed Off and Shallow Grave.
McGregor has previously demonstrated his singing and dancing skills, albeit on screen, in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film Moulin Rouge, which had also at one point been tipped for a stage crossover (See The Goss, 5 Dec 2001).
Guys and Dolls, the “musical fable of Broadway”, has music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, and a book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerlin, based on the short stories by Damon Runyon about New York low-life in the 1940s. Loesser’s score includes classics such as “Adelaide’s Lament”, “I’ve Never Been in Love Before”, “Sue Me”, “Luck Be a Lady”, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” and the title song.
Premiered on Broadway in 1950, Guys and Dolls first reached London in 1953 when it ran for 555 performances at the Coliseum. It was made into a 1953 Hollywood film starring Marlon Brandon, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. At the National, Richard Eyre mounted a multi award-winning production in 1982, when Bob Hoskins and Julia McKenzie starred. Eyre’s production was revived for an extended run at the NT Olivier in 1996 with a cast that included Clarke Peters as Sky Masterson and Clive Rowe, who won a Laurence Olivier Award for his supporting role as Nicely Nicely Johnson. The Donmar staging will be the first new London production in 23 years.
The story centres around a group of small-time gamblers and their long-suffering girlfriends. Nathan Detroit, under nuptial pressure from his girlfriend Miss Adelaide, needs $1,000 to enter a crap game and, to raise the cash, bets his friend Sky Masterson that he can't woo the prim neighbourhood missionary, Sarah Brown. No further casting has yet been announced.
Grandage’s other musical credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Privates on Parade and the Donmar’s upcoming revival of another Broadway hit, Grand Hotel (See News, 27 Oct 2003). Guys and Dolls will be designed by Christopher Oram and produced in the West End by the Ambassador Theatre Group and David Ian for Clear Channel Entertainment, in association with the Donmar’s own in-house production team.
- by Terri Paddock
Related Content
