2009 Broadway Revival of Guys and Dolls- did anyone see it?

Cafe Society
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In some relatively recent Thread (I’m not going to search) there was a discussion about “Songs you Hate from Musicals you Love” or something like that.

Someone very passionately nominated “Marry the Man Today” from Guys and Dolls, hating the song because of the horrible sentiment it expresses.

I had to giggle to myself a bit because, although the sentiment is horrible if taken as life advice, it is a great song. A really funny song with clever comedic lyrics. The melody is great, the two vocal parts weave in and out of each other in a fun engaging way. I really love this song.
I watched the movie last night for the first time in a while. This song didn’t make it into the movie (the movie is two and a half hours as it is, personally I am happy they cut “My Time of Day” blech! but who the hell thought “Bushel and a Peck” needed to be replaced???) Anyway, long story short (too late!), because I watched the movie last night I was inspired this afternoon to go to YouTube looking for “Marry the Man Today”. Mostly what I found was High School productions. Even if the performances were good, I expected the sound quality to be terrible.

But, scrolling down the page I found this performance from the 2009 Tonys performed by Kate Jennings Grant and Lauren Graham. I think “Hey, the audio will be great on that one,” while simultaneously thinking “Lauren Graham!?!? I LOVE Lauren Graham! I had no idea she did this! Wow!”

“Wow!”, indeed. This performance is horrible. Lauren Graham shows that she is a capable singer, but her performance is really bad. She is so awkward she can barely walk and she has this look on her face like she’s telling herself “don’tmessupdon’tmessupdon’tmessup”. Kate Jennings Grant maybe could be good but you can read too much into her face that she knows she’s part of something that isn’t going well and can’t wait for it to end.

The Wiki page says the 2009 production as a whole was quite negatively reviewed. Did anyone see it? Was Lauren Graham as bad in the show every night as she was in that Tony performance? How was Oliver Platt? I quite like him (although, as mentioned, I quite like Graham as well but can recognize that she was really bad in the clip provided).

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The song was a victim of its own popularity. The producers felt that everyone was tired of it by the time the movie came out. They may have been right, though the replacement was a real loser.

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What a fiasco that was. I didn’t see it, and I don’t know too many people who did. It ran 121 performances, which is pretty dismal… three and a half months and then it was gone. However, in its defense, it was nominated for the 2009 Tony for Best Revival, so take that for what it’s worth…

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Doesn’t every revival get nominated for Best Revival?
(Some years it does seem so.)

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I saw it and enjoyed it. However, Lauren’s understudy was playing Adelaide.

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Hence the “take that for what it’s worth…”. :smiley:

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Wow, I completely forgot that even *had *a revival in 2009. It came and went so quickly.

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How was Oliver Platt? Can he sing?

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His singing wasn’t memorable but it wasn’t bad or I would remember.