The day before I was scheduled to see Guys & Dolls, I saw two productions back to back that were huge bummers- bad, sort of sad, wildly boring. When lamenting that horrible no-good very bad day, my spirits never fell too far because I knew the next day was Guys & Dolls. A girl needs something she can count on in this world and, across dozens of productions, spanning decades, I’ve always been able to count on Guys & Dolls. It’s as rock solid a musical as can be- fun without being stupid, doable by even the most questionable of casts (I’ve seen more high schoolers in these roles than I can count), packed with hit after hit that sound good and capture your heart no matter the execution.

But it’s not just Guys & Dolls that filled me with confidence that day. Donna Feore has also never once, not ever, let me down. Her particular brand of high-effort, high-impact direction and choreography never fails to elevate whatever material she’s working with. Plus this production is basically a straight remount of the 2017 version with a new cast so, while there was potential for some unforeseen upsides, I knew there was nothing in the world that could derail it below like B+ level.

On the flip side of all this certainty, however, is the lack of surprise. Jennifer Rider-Shaw hits higher comedic heights than I’d previously seen from her (her playful animosity with Mark Uhre’s Nathan beautifully captures a sense of real, lived-in love), and Gabriel Antonacci as Benny Southstreet stands out as a star cast member I’d never noticed before, but I knew what I was getting with this show and, while I’m delighted to report that every single thing from the production design to the stellar dancing is as polished as promised, it’s nice sometimes to be thrown some kind of curveball.

Enter Alex Kelly, stepping in to cover both of Dan Chameroy’s roles for the few days I was in Stratford (I also saw him as Nostradamus in Something Rotten!). Suave, handsome, and wielding a lovely baritone, Kelly has all the tools to be a fantastic Sky Masterson and he’s actually a far better match for current Sarah Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane. Unfortunately the two qualities that are completely crucial for Sky are comfort and chemistry- two things you can only develop with time and rehearsal, which are the only two things Kelly had little to no access to- so the performance wasn’t at full power the night I saw it, but the building blocks are absolutely in place for Kelly to completely own the role should he get the chance (for the record, Chameroy appears to be well and present and back on in both roles full time as far as I can tell from Instagram).

Chameroy is a natural choice for Sky in terms of presence and skill set. An all-time Stratford heartthrob with trademark swagger and one of Canada’s great male voices, I’m having trouble believing Google when it insists he’s never played this role before. If true, that’s a massive bungle by Canadian theatre powers that be. He’s perfect for Sky, but the time for his Sky was twenty years ago (maybe ten if we’re really stretching my tolerance for the age difference). Especially with the great but still pretty young Stephen Patterson in as father figure Abernathy, a Sky Chameroy’s age brings an unlikeable dynamic to the character’s confident wooing and casual flying young women to Cuba. It’s particularly frustrating knowing that talents like Kelly are waiting in the chorus for their shot at the great roles. Dan Chameroy has defined musical theatre in Canada for literally my entire life. His contributions are incalculable. But I worry that continuing to default to him is starting to compromise that landscape moving forward.

The rest of the production is packed with the kind of energy and excitement that fills the audience with hope for Canadian musical production (I’m once again thinking to myself that Devon Michael Brown ought to be one of the highest paid stars in Canada despite rarely having more than a handful of spoken or sung lines, such is his lynchpin importance to the astounding quality of the Stratford chorus work).

There are so few guarantees in life and I do want you to take risks with your personal theatre programming (one of my other favourite shows of the summer thus far was an absurdist drag clown show in a speakeasy– you truly never know) but if I were a betting gal, I’d always put my money on Donna Feore and Guys & Dolls.