I am such a critic and know I have no right to be. We saw Guys and Dolls at the Shakespeare Theatre and, while it was a lot of fun and very good, I sat there and, scene after scene, and said to myself: I would do this differently.

There were a few things that were perfect. No doubt about that. For example, each scene that Hayley Podschun was in (she played Adelaide) was perfect. I didn’t know her, but see she has performed at Arena Stage quite a bit, and will forgive her for also being a sometime host on the Home Shopping Network. Also perfect was Kyle Taylor Parker, who played Nicely Nicely Johnson (“Sit down, sit down, sit down, yer rockin the boat”).

The rest of the cast was very good, but didn’t get to perfection, with the possible exception of the Havana scene, where I thought Julie Benko (Sister Sarah) really shined. She just seemed a lot more natural drinking milk and Bacardi than she did saving souls.

As to the music, you can’t find a better show. 20 songs. Each a classic. As to the book, it is hard to find a script more dated, and jokes more stale. Updating (if that is allowed by the copyright holders) would be helpful.

One more thought. The stage at the Harmon Theatre is very large. Too large, I think, for Guys and Dolls (isn’t a crap game an intimate affair?), and the creators of this production really did nothing much to size it down. They turned the Save-a-Soul Mission  into a thrift shop, with racks of clothing that were totally disconnected from the plot. Why did they do this? I think it was simply because the stage is so big and they didn’t want it to look even bigger. They had to fill it with something.

Guys and Dolls runs until Jan 8 and you will have a lot of fun if you see it. It is one of three main stage classic musicals running this fall and early winter in Washington. Damn Yankees has closed at Arena. People raved about it. We missed it because of a ticket snafu. Fiddler on the Roof is in the middle of a three month run at Signature in Arlington. Everyone loves that, too. We need to buy tickets.

(Of course, I don’t want to forget the upcoming short run  production of Annie by the esteemed Congregation B’nai Tzedek Players coming up in late January, featuring two close family members.)

After the matinee yesterday, we decided to get supper out if we passed a restaurant where there waa an empty parking space. If you are here in Washington, perhaps you can visualize this. We drive north on 14th Street and turn left on Park Road. Our route will then follow Park Road through the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood into and across Rock Creek Park and beyond.

Between 14th and 16th Streets, Park Road is one-lane, one-way, with parking on both sides of the street. There are a number of small restaurants, but street parking is at a premium (there is one large public garage), so we normally just drive on through (slowly, because the street tends to be as busy as it is narrow). But yesterday, at 5:30, there was an open parking space and we took it.

We went to Bombay Street Food, which we have passed 100 times or more since it opened and wondered about it. It turned put to be very pleasant and quite good.

We shared an appetizer made up of “crispy” spinach, yoghurt, crispy noodles, and chutney (pictured), gobi aloo (potato and cauliflower), and a terrific vegetable dish called kholapuri vegetables.

Too bad the parking isn’t always that easy.