LIVE: “Guys and Dolls” @ Barrington Stage Company [GailSez]

That was NOT me seen dancing my way out of the BSC Main Stage yesterday afternoon shouting something semi-coherent about “Fun!”…well, okay, it was. I admit, I had a pile of fun at Guys and Dolls and while I know that, professionally, I shouldn’t be seen expressing an opinion in public, I couldn’t help myself. Fun is highly under-rated and often denigrated when applied to art, but having it is really vital to the living of a sane, healthy life. I was suffering from serious theatrical fun deprivation and went a little loopy after the near-overdose that Guys and Dolls provided.

But I was not the first person to utter the word “fun” in the theatre – BSC Artistic Director Julianne Boyd started it in her curtain speech when she said that sometimes you stage a show just because its fun to do, and that she and the company had had lots of fun putting this production together. So the fact that the end result was fun to watch is hardly surprising.

But if you don’t want to believe me and Julie Boyd, I give you the evidence of the audience with whom I attended – an audience laden with curmudgeonly critics, I might add – who twice stopped the show with their applause and gave a rousing standing ovation at the end. I know that standing O’s have been over-indulged in of late, but this one was the real McCoy. You could feel the energy building. I love that feeling.

Click to read the rest at GailSez