
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The London Première of Guys and Dolls The London Première of Guys and Dolls
-
The Shared Territories of Broadway and Soho The Shared Territories of Broadway and Soho
-
Thematic and Stylistic Parallels in the Soho Musicals Thematic and Stylistic Parallels in the Soho Musicals
-
Guys and Dolls as the Performance of Show Business Guys and Dolls as the Performance of Show Business
-
Notes Notes
-
Bibliography Bibliography
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
14 The Most Beloved American Musical: Guys and Dolls in London
Get accessJohn Snelson is a musicologist and cultural historian. He specialises in the lyric stage, especially twentieth-century British musical theatre and its relationship to national identity, the subject of his doctoral dissertation (2003). His publications include Reviewing the Situation: The British Musical from Noël Coward to Lionel Bart (Bloomsbury, 2023), Andrew Lloyd Webber (Yale University Press, 2004) and chapters in William A. Everitt and Paul R. Laird, eds., The Cambridge Companion to the Musical (Cambridge University Press, 2002; 3rd ed., 2017); Robert Gordon and Olaf Jubin, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical (Oxford University Press, 2016); and Michela Niccolai and Clair Rowden, eds., Musical Theatre in Europe 1830–1945 (Brepols, 2017). He was a member of the three-year international research network ‘Screen Adaptations of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra: Routes of Cultural Transfer’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and contributed to the volume of Opera Quarterly (no. 34 [Spring–Summer 2018]) dedicated to the project. For twenty years he worked at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he was the head of publication and interpretation.
-
Published:23 October 2023
Cite
Abstract
Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway in 1950 to almost unanimous praise. The reception of its opening in London in 1953 was more equivocal. This chapter examines from a London perspective what has been widely viewed as a musical uniquely based on a Broadway iconography created through the writings of Damon Runyon. This reveals where the world of Runyon and Guys and Dolls has parallels in London’s Soho of a similar era and demonstrates common characteristics with British musicals of the decade that also explore metropolitan tropes. Productions in London from 1979 to 2018 illustrate how the show’s context is no longer that of a work with a contemporary metropolitan resonance, but comes from its place as a classic of the canon such that productions have increasingly prioritised nostalgia and theatricality as the show’s core identity.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2023 | 7 |
November 2023 | 2 |
January 2024 | 3 |
February 2024 | 3 |
May 2024 | 7 |
June 2024 | 4 |
July 2024 | 3 |
August 2024 | 2 |
September 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 5 |
November 2024 | 2 |
December 2024 | 8 |
January 2025 | 2 |
March 2025 | 2 |
April 2025 | 4 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.