Dan Chameroy as Sky Masterson with members of the company in 'Guys and Dolls.' Chameroy is the quintessential Masterson, suave and slick.Ann Baggley/Supplied
- Title: Guys and Dolls
- Written by: Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, based on a story and characters by Damon Runyon
- Performed by: Dan Chameroy, Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, Mark Uhre, Jennifer Rider-Shaw, Steve Ross, Stephen Patterson
- Director: Donna Feore
- Company: Stratford Festival
- Venue: Festival Theatre
- City: Stratford, Ont.
- Year: Runs until Nov. 1
Critic’s Pick
In a given year at the Stratford Festival, director-choreographer Donna Feore has no competition: Whatever musical she chooses to stage at the Festival Theatre is dependably the tightest, most dazzling show in the season. Most years, her work has received at least one mid-show standing ovation; in just about every instance, usually following some mind-blowing dance break, the applause has been warranted.
Full coverage: Stratford Festival
This year, however, Feore has a fierce competitor: herself. The 2026 season includes two of her most beloved projects: Guys and Dolls, tweaked since its 2017 run, and Something Rotten!, first presented at the festival in 2024 and, to this day, my favourite production of a musical I’ve seen since moving to Canada a decade ago.
Something Rotten! might remain my favourite. (I’ll get to test whether that’s still the case when the remount officially opens on Friday night.)
But Guys and Dolls, the 1950 gangster comedy about sequined showgirls and degenerate wise guys, is a close second – and, on a technical level, might even be better.
Set in a New York divided along moral lines, Guys and Dolls follows a group of gamblers intent on preserving their crapshooter way of life. When Nathan Detroit (Mark Uhre) realizes he lacks the cash to secure a dice-throwing venue, he enters a bet with high-roller Sky Masterson (Dan Chameroy): If Masterson can’t take a girl of Detroit’s choosing on a date to Havana, he’ll have to cough up $1,000.
The twist is that Detroit’s gal of choice is Sarah Brown (Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane), a pious missionary intent on saving as many souls as possible. As such, the bet ought to be an easy win for Detroit – so easy, in fact, that he might even use the money to make good on marrying his fiancée of 14 years, the long-suffering, long-sneezing Adelaide (Jennifer Rider-Shaw), whose impatience to start a family with Detroit has roused in her a persistent, sinus-blocking flu.
It’s not often that a stage show is executed so flawlessly that it feels like a military exercise, but director Donna Feore is the ultimate drill sergeant, writes Aisling Murphy.David Hou/Supplied
But this is a musical: Of course things don’t go according to plan. The book, by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, shows its age in spots – its gender politics somewhat chafe with a 21st-century understanding of romance – but Guys and Dolls is a classic for good reason. Its punchlines punch hard; its scenes clip by like reels in a slot machine. Frank Loesser’s songs don’t do much to advance the plot, but they’re so much fun that it hardly matters: Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat; Luck Be a Lady and Havana are a veritable riot as choreographed by Feore. (And don’t get me started on the showstopping Crapshooters’ Dance in the second act.)
Indeed, it’s the director’s movement sensibilities that make her musicals so special, and Guys and Dolls is a rare treat in that department. It’s as if Feore’s spinning ensemble somehow breathes different, more oxygen-rich air than the rest of us. How else to explain their boundless energy as they traverse Michael Gianfrancesco’s stylish set? How else to account for the fact that their jumps at the end of Guys and Dolls are even higher than those at the beginning? (Ensemble members Devon Michael Brown and Carla Bennett are particularly eye-catching in the group numbers.)
And while Guys and Dolls features a number of familiar faces in its leading cast – lit in nostalgic, neon hues by Bonnie Beecher and snazzily costumed by Dana Osborne – those actors are in roles that couldn’t be better-suited to their skills.
Chameroy is the quintessential Masterson, suave and slick as he seduces Sarah, sung to near-perfection by Sinclair-Brisbane. Rider-Shaw, somewhat miscast in last year’s Annie, is a powerhouse as Adelaide, the role’s belted anthems right at home in her full-chested voice. Uhre, too, is terrific as the antsy Detroit, his New York accent highlighting the cartoonish tilt that makes Guys and Dolls such an enduring piece of theatre.
Set in a New York divided along moral lines, Guys and Dolls follows a group of gamblers intent on preserving their crapshooter way of life.Ann Baggley/Supplied
Steve Ross, meanwhile, a long-time favourite of the Stratford Festival, offers a Nicely-Nicely Johnson so funny that it’s almost a shame the character doesn’t have a spinoff musical of his own.
It’s not often that a stage show is executed so flawlessly that it feels as much like a military exercise as it does a piece of consumer entertainment. But Feore, whose standards seem to rise with each passing year, is the ultimate drill sergeant. In Guys and Dolls, her cast’s turns are reliably in sync, their harmonies utterly precise, their dialogue timed out down to the nanosecond.
A Stratford Festival season with two Feore musicals was a gamble worthy of Masterson, and before this week I wondered how the fest might pull it off. Then again, Feore is a tried-and-true racehorse, a force of nature in Canadian theatre with only one truly viable competitor: herself. And, ahead of her Something Rotten! victory lap on Friday, I’d put good money on both Feores winning big this year.