London critics have been raving about director Gordon Greenberg’s West End revival of Guys and Dolls. Both The Guardian and The Telegraph awarded it four stars, and when Rebel Wilson joined the cast as Miss Adelaide June 28, the applause only grew.
Now Greenberg says he’d love for the production to transfer to Broadway. “My hope is that it will come here,” he said at a press event for his upcoming Holiday Inn at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54. “I’ve had several meetings about it, and there’s a lot of people interested.
“I would love for it to come here with Rebel in it,” he continued. “She wants to do it. She’s bawdy. It’s like early Bette Midler watching her; she’s pretty insane and fearless. We’ve become really good mates, as they say, but what I really appreciate about her more than anything is her amazing work ethic. I don’t know if everyone knows, but she’s literally a trained lawyer. She’s at rehearsal two hours early. But the important thing is that she is someone that sets her mind to it and then never stops until it’s done. She would work ’til midnight every night to get things right. So, yes, I’d love for her to come.”
There has been no official announcement of a transfer at this time. The last Broadway revival of the classic by Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows bowed March 1, 2009, at the Nederlander Theatre and closed shortly after, playing only 121 performances. Oliver Platt played the iconic Nathan Detroit with Lauren Graham as Miss Adelaide, Kate Jennings Grant as Sister Sarah Brown and Craig Bierko as Sky Masterson. More recently, a benefit concert was staged at Carnegie Hall in April 2014, starring Nathan Lane (who starred opposite Faith Prince in the 1992 Tony-winning revival), Megan Mullally, Patrick Wilson and Sierra Boggess.
The current West End revival boasts Wilson as Miss Adelaide, Simon Lipkin as Nathan Detroit, Oliver Tompsett as Sky Masterson and Siubhan Harrison as Sister Sarah Brown. The run was originally set through January 7, 2017, but will close upon Wilson’s exit August 21, instead.
The production premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2014, before transferring to the Savoy Theatre in December 2015. It then moved to the Phoenix in March, whilst simultaneously launching a U.K. touring production.
Earlier this year, it was rumored the show would be filmed for the BBC. Greenberg confirmed that this plan was in the works, but said the project did not come to fruition. “There’s a film being made now by FOX with—ostensibly—Channing Tatum, I don’t know, but there are movie stars attached,” he said, “and because of that there was a last-minute kind of wrench in the works, and that stopped it.” Still, the show was filmed for archival purposes. “They just filmed it for the Victoria [library] and for the V&A Museum, so it will be there … that anyone can see.”
Watch highlights from the benefit performance of Guys and Dolls at Carnegie Hall:
