Guys and Dolls - West End and UK Tour

I guess the producers wanted to go out on a "high" with houses full. Also they probably didn't want to rely on star casting to finish off the run until January and having to pay big stars too. It's probably a better choice for them to close early I think

Go on. Someone put me out of my misery about the asthma joke.

She comes on stage as Adelaide for one of her Hot Box performances smoking a cigarette but breaks her American accent and goes "Someone take this off me, I'm asthmatic".

Nothing hilarious but a nice ad libbed style joke (even though it clearly isn't ad libbed).

I saw Rebel's first show & I don't remember an asthma joke standing out, but then again I wasn't looking for it.

And I hugely apologise if my next comment sounds flippant, as it really isn't meant in that way, but surely we cannot sensitise ourselves so much to conditions that no jokes are allowed to be made about anything just in case someone has sadly died. What if someone dies of a common cold? (Maybe this has happened? I don't know). Is the whole character of Adelaide now a walking, talking, singing and dancing offence? Where does political correctness stop if we keep telling people "you shouldn't do that, because this happened once"? For a long time, comedy has been used to battle death, diseases, conditions, sadness etc. As I see it, Rebel saw some comedy in claiming she was asthmatic whilst holding a cigarette and surrounded by smoke. It's quite a common condition, but to my ignorance to die of it is quite a rare occurrence, so I highly doubt that Rebel is even aware herself. Not a joke that is there to try and cause offence and push boundaries, a throw away gag that is probably gone and forgotten but hugely enjoyed by the audience at the time. What's so bad about that?

It has. (It wasn't just a cold, but a cold on top of reduced lung capacity resulting from years of smoking. Even so, it was the added strain of coping with the cold that made the difference. I get very annoyed at people who insist on showing how brave they are by struggling on and infecting everyone around them because "it's only a cold".)

Both yourself and the ad are correct! She is indeed finishing at the weekend - which is also when the run comes to an end

The line not being there is also a hugely valid point but what I've been thinking about more and more since your post is indeed our (colloquial 'our') attitude towards asthma. I was not aware of Coleman until you mentioned up a few posts ago and I've no problems admitting that I'd never looked at asthma in the same vein as cancer and AIDS - maybe we (again, colloquial 'we') should!

I saw the show on Tuesday and even I'm not sure as the programme hadn't been updated!

What were their performances like?

Do you think the people laughing lots and applauding Rebel's performance were normal theatregoers or were their enthusiastic responses due to the fact they'd booked to just see her on stage, regardless of the role or the musical?

I was there yesterday afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed three of the four main characters (as a side note, having seen Oliver and Siubhan earlier this year, it was great to see that their understudies aren't just playing carbon copies of them). I found it interesting that Frankie sings I'll Know in the higher key that Anna O'Byrne used on tour, rather than the lower key Siubhan used last time I was there. Obviously keys are sometimes changed for different performers/productions, but I've never come across an example of an understudy using a different key to the principal before.

Rebel ... well, I enjoyed her more than I expected given the comments on here, but her style of broad, brash humour isn't really my thing, so I suppose it was a given that she wouldn't be my favourite. I got the impression that her singing voice is actually decent, but she's so over-the-top on the comedy front that the singing gets lost. I found it difficult to make out half her words, and I know the show well - goodness knows how anyone who'd never seen it before got on. I overheard a couple of ladies at the interval saying she'd be funnier if she toned it down a bit, and I agree.

I think the laughter is a combination of things. There are probably some who are there to see Rebel and would find her funny regardless, sure. There are probably some who are laughing because they're "supposed" to. There are also some people who are normal theatregoers who are genuinely entertained by her. I have a friend who didn't particularly expect to enjoy Rebel's performance but found her very funny.