Was Luck a Lady for London's Guys and Dolls Revival?

Guys and Dolls is back in London with a production headlined by film star Ewan McGregor and Tony winner Jane Krakowski. The musical comedy, directed by Michael Grandage, opened at the Piccadilly Theatre on June 1. Did critics think this revival was a safe gamble for ticket buyers?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Matt Wolf of Variety: "The evening's most unexpected kick is the dynamic dance musical wrought from a show known principally for its book and score. Auds will go in humming any of a half-dozen cherished Frank Loesser songs and come out knocked sideways by the footwork: The first-act 'Havana' number comes close to heaven. The question isn't whether Moulin Rouge crooner Ewan McGregorEwan McGregor, playing the sexiest, sweetest Sky Masterson imaginable, can cut it singing live -- though he does quite capably,complete with the occasional head voice that holds the note. Just as crucial is the realization that the boy can move. Whether sweeping up a Cuban native the impossibly leggy Summer Strallen during that Havana jaunt or joining his fellow gamblers for an impulsive terpsichorean outpouring on 'Luck Be a Lady,' he does his bit to sustain the momentum. And when the steps get too fancy? McGregor's smart enough to get out of the way."

Benedict Nightingale of The London Times: "What surprised me was [McGregor's] ability not just to talk his songs, but to sing them, and sing them smoothly and tunefully. What surprised me a lot less was his laid-back urbanity and, when he's shooting craps, his equally effortless sense of command. Give this Sky a dramatic climax and he'll gleam, like his namesake in high summer. Yet it's the musical's subplot that is the most rewarding. Can Nathan Detroit, who has been engaged to Miss Adelaide for aeons, indefinitely postpone the wedding while managing to organise the crap game she wants him to forgo? Here, he's played by a gangling, shambling, slightly goofy Douglas Hodge with the harried grin you might expect of someone who is, in effect, trying to juggle, do back-somersaults and walk the tightrope all at once. I'm not sure if Jane Krakow-ski, a Broadway star imported to play Adelaide, has quite the wit of Imelda Staunton, who took the role in 1996; but she brings great charm and a fine voice to the business of sending up the character's good- natured dopiness. There's even a touch of pathos in her delivery of the celebrated song in which she laments her unwed years in terms of colds, flu and hypochondriacal symptoms."

Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard: "The admirable orchestra never drowns out the singers. Unfortunately, though, compared with Richard Eyre's vintage productions at the National, in 1982 and 1996, Grandage's version misses the boat. Designer Christopher Oram's set, with its vast neon-lit towers, is far too impersonal and grand… McGregor's colourless Sky, who has none of the memorable, melancholic cool of Ian Charleson's definitive, 1982 Masterson, makes use of a small, inexpressive singing voice but scarcely wears the looks of a man surprised by love or even lust. Pathos lies beyond Jane Krakowski's range, so Adelaide often falls flattish. She does, however, achieve a comic Marilyn Monroeish seductiveness and mournful comedy when up against her fiancé, a crumpled, battered and oddly bland Nathan Detroit. The audience's standing ovation was more a tribute to the seductive, pulling and staying power of the songs than to the performers."

Charles Spencer of The Telegraph: "Unusually for Grandage, the production sometimes smells more of perspiration than inspiration… Christopher Oram's Times Square setting lacks the required fizzing voltage, while Rob Ashford's choreography, though it has its moments, never quite transports the audience to dance heaven. The show's biggest failure though is its biggest star. Ewan McGregor's Sky Masterson… proves the hole at the show's heart. Sky needs to be charming with just a hint of danger about him, but McGregor's performance is as eerily blank and sexless as his Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. His tight, strained voice never really lets rip on Loesser's soaring numbers like 'My Time of Day' and 'Luck Be A Lady,' and there is almost no crackle of sexual tension in his dealings with Jenna Russell's touchingly vulnerable Sarah. She's a delight, but finds herself lumbered with a Jedi knight devoid of charisma."

Michael Billington of The Guardian: "As played by Ewan McGregor, Sky is dapper and cool, but deep down a decent, religious guy who knows his Proverbs from his Isaiah. Meanwhile Jenna Russell's Sarah is outwardly a strong-jawed missionary, but a bit of a raver when she cuts loose. Each, in short, has something of the other's qualities. If only McGregor's singing voice matched his acting and his dancing, it would be a first-rate performance. Admittedly there are times when Grandage's realistic approach seems at slight odds with the fairy-tale quality of the story…. But, as I always say, musicals are about ecstasy and there are two moments when this show really hits the button…. Grandage has not just revived one of the best of all Broadway shows, he has reminded us that even musicals need to be rooted in truth if they are to earn their classic status."

Paul Taylor of The Independent: "Grandage's production pitches perfectly the show's mix of urban knowingness and pastoral innocence. Unlike Jerry Zaks' 1992 Broadway revival, he does not patronise the characters by reducing them to garishly garbed cartoons. Jane Ally McBeal Krakowski is an adenoidal delight as Miss Adelaide, radiating both the incorrigible romantic hopefulness and the bruised realism of the Hot Box stripper who has been kept dangling for 14 years by Douglas Hodge's winningly hapless and harassed Nathan Detroit. As Sky Masterson, the smoothie who takes on Nathan's bet that he won't be able to lure Sarah excellent Jenna Russell, the strait-laced Salvation Army girl on a trip to Havana, Ewan McGregor makes up in easy charm and seductive glamour what he lacks in natural vocal skills, though he sounds a lot better than Marlon Brando in the movie and lets rip with a perfectly placed final high note in 'Luck Be A Lady.'"