Gina Beck and Michael Simkins to join 'Guys & Dolls' at Bridge Theatre

Gina Beck has starred in Matilda, The Sound of Music, and Wicked, while Michael Simkins has appeared in Backstairs Billy, The Unfriend, and Mamma Mia!.

Gina Beck and Michael Simkins will join the cast of Nicholas Hytner’s immersive production of Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre this September.

Beck, who has starred in a number of hit West End musicals including Matilda, The Sound of Music, Show Boat, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables, will play Sarah Brown, taking over the role from Celinde Schoenmaker. Michael Simkins (John Gabriel Borkman, Backstairs Billy, The Unfriend, Fracked!, Yes, Prime Minister, Mamma Mia!) will join as Arvide Abernathy, taking over from Niall Buggy.

Gina Beck said: “I’ve dreamt of playing this role and singing this beautiful score for so long I can’t actually believe I’m going to get to do it, and in such an incredible production. I hope I can at least half fill the shoes of the sensational Celinde Schoenmaker who created the role in this beautiful revival. “If I were a gate I’d be swiiiingiiing!!!””

Michael Simkins said: “I am thrilled to bits to be working at the Bridge Theatre again, and even more thrilled to be joining this sensational show, having seen it in January and been utterly blown away by it. The words I used afterwards to describe it to my friends and family (all of whom I insisted must see the production without delay) was ‘transformative’ - fresh as paint, wonderfully uplifting, and utterly irresistible.”

They are joining Owain Arthur as Nathan Detroit, George Ioannides as Sky Masterson, Timmika Ramsay as Miss Adelaide, and Jonathan Andrew Hume as Nicely-Nicely Johnson.

Guys & Dolls, which won the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for Arlene Phillips with James Cousins, opened at the Bridge in March 2023 and has been extended for a final time until January 2025.

The musical has music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, and tells the overlapping stories of two New York gamblers and the two very different women who love them.

The rest of the creative team includes choreography by Arlene Phillips with James Cousins, musical supervision and arrangements by Tom Brady, set by Bunny Christie, costumes by Bunny Christie and Deborah Andrews, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Paul Arditti, orchestrations by Charlie Rosen, associate direction by James Cousins and Lily Dyble, fight direction by Kate Waters, and wigs, hair and make-up by Campbell Young Associates.

Celinde Schoenmaker and Niall Buggy’s final performance will be 31 August.

Book standing tickets to Guys & Dolls on London Theatre.

Book seated tickets to Guys & Dolls on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Gina Beck and Michael Simkins. (Photos courtesy of production)