Breaking Baz: The Musical Comedy Romance Of ‘Guys & Dolls’; James Corden Eyes Return To London Stage; The Marvel Of Julianne Moore In ‘Sharper’
04.03.2023 - 06:19
/ deadline.com
Comedy is what we need right now, says Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys, The Madness of King George), who ran London’s National Theatre for a decade.
It’s fine to have heavy-lifting dramas by Ibsen or Schiller, but boy-oh-boy laugher is an increasingly uplifting necessity.
Which is where Guys & Dolls and James Corden, post his life on The Late Late Show, come in.
Hytner, partnered with longtime executive Nick Starr, now own and control London’s Bridge Theatre and is overseeing a fully immersive revival of the classic Broadway musical Guys & Dolls, choreographed by Dame Arlene Phillips (Strictly Come Dancing) and now in early previews.
It stars Daniel Mays (The Long Shadow, 1917) as Nathan Detroit, Andrew Richardson (A Call to Spy) as Sky Masterson, Celinde Schoenmaker (Rocketman) as Sarah Brown and Marisha Wallace (Aladdin) as long-suffering Miss Adelaide. Cedric Neal plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Also in the cast are Jordan Castle, Cornelius Clarke, Cameron Johnson, Anthony O’Donnell, Mark Oxtoby, Ryan Pidgen and Katy Secombe.
Corden ends his The Late Late Show experience with CBS this summer. Hytner has spoken with Corden about what he wants to do when he touches down in the UK. One of the things he’s definite about is recharging his stage skills with a return to One Man, Two Guvnors, in which he gave a masterclass in physical comedy winning him a Tony on Broadway.
“We’re nudging that into place at the moment,” Hytner tells me.
Corden, he says, would do the show either at the Bridge or in the West End at the end of this year, or early in 2024.
Hytner directed the original production in 2011 at the National when, needing to add lighter fare to an otherwise “serious” season, he commissioned Richard Bean to adapt Carlo