This Revival Can’t Do, Can’t Do
By Lauren Yarger
It’s a musical with a terrific Frank Loesser score and decades of successful stagings from New York to the high school auditorium near you, but the latest revival of Guys and Dolls at Broadway’s Nederlander Theater just can’t do.
The first musical number, “Fugue for Tinhorns,” from which we alter the “can do” lyrics in the headline for this review, tells the story of the show’s problem right from the start: too many individuals without a blend. The three-voice popular song in which the characters speculate on the best bets at the race track sounds like three guys trying to make sure they stand out individually instead of working together to create one tune. And so it goes with the musical, as the four leads try to create characters different from those we’ve become accustomed to over the years.
The usually excellent Oliver Platt seems ill at ease and plays floating crap-game organizer Nathan Detroit as though he’s trying to do an imitation of Harvey Fierstein. Lauren Graham as Miss Adelaide, who can’t get Detroit to the altar, abandons the character’s traditional nasal accent and adopts one that doesn’t quite work. Kate Jennings Grant’s Sarah Brown is hardly retiring, rigid or naïve, as we've come to expect. Instead, she is brash and entirely capable of holding her own against the advances of Craig Bierko’s slick Skye Masterson (indeed, Bierko is the only one of the four stars who appears confident in the skin of his character), so it seems a bit silly that the whole plot revolves around a bet that Masterson can’t woo the Salvation Army prude and convince her to accompany him to Cuba for dinner.
The result is that there’s no chemistry and a show with a fill-in-the- gaps-around-the-great-songs book (Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows) needs chemistry. It feels as though director Des McAnuff has taken a hands-off approach and hopes that Robert Brill’s massive moving, ever-changing sets (made even more elaborate by Dustin O'Neill's video design), Paul Tazewell’s dazzling 1940s-era costumes with splashes of contrasting color, Sergio Trujillo’s choreography and Loesser’s wonderful music and lyrics (Ted Sperring, music director) will distract us enough to keep us from realizing that there’s something missing. One welcome addition would be additional vocal coaching for Graham whose voice sounds strained. A large ensemble cast of characters and dancers seems disconnected from the whole as well, except for Jim Ortlieb, who plays Arvide Abernathy, Sarah's bass-drum beating grandfather who gives a really nice rendition of "More I Cannot Wish You."
By Lauren Yarger
It’s a musical with a terrific Frank Loesser score and decades of successful stagings from New York to the high school auditorium near you, but the latest revival of Guys and Dolls at Broadway’s Nederlander Theater just can’t do.
The first musical number, “Fugue for Tinhorns,” from which we alter the “can do” lyrics in the headline for this review, tells the story of the show’s problem right from the start: too many individuals without a blend. The three-voice popular song in which the characters speculate on the best bets at the race track sounds like three guys trying to make sure they stand out individually instead of working together to create one tune. And so it goes with the musical, as the four leads try to create characters different from those we’ve become accustomed to over the years.
The usually excellent Oliver Platt seems ill at ease and plays floating crap-game organizer Nathan Detroit as though he’s trying to do an imitation of Harvey Fierstein. Lauren Graham as Miss Adelaide, who can’t get Detroit to the altar, abandons the character’s traditional nasal accent and adopts one that doesn’t quite work. Kate Jennings Grant’s Sarah Brown is hardly retiring, rigid or naïve, as we've come to expect. Instead, she is brash and entirely capable of holding her own against the advances of Craig Bierko’s slick Skye Masterson (indeed, Bierko is the only one of the four stars who appears confident in the skin of his character), so it seems a bit silly that the whole plot revolves around a bet that Masterson can’t woo the Salvation Army prude and convince her to accompany him to Cuba for dinner.
The result is that there’s no chemistry and a show with a fill-in-the- gaps-around-the-great-songs book (Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows) needs chemistry. It feels as though director Des McAnuff has taken a hands-off approach and hopes that Robert Brill’s massive moving, ever-changing sets (made even more elaborate by Dustin O'Neill's video design), Paul Tazewell’s dazzling 1940s-era costumes with splashes of contrasting color, Sergio Trujillo’s choreography and Loesser’s wonderful music and lyrics (Ted Sperring, music director) will distract us enough to keep us from realizing that there’s something missing. One welcome addition would be additional vocal coaching for Graham whose voice sounds strained. A large ensemble cast of characters and dancers seems disconnected from the whole as well, except for Jim Ortlieb, who plays Arvide Abernathy, Sarah's bass-drum beating grandfather who gives a really nice rendition of "More I Cannot Wish You."
The musicians, housed in a three-story platform behind the action on stage and conducted by Jeffrey Klitz, are great and it’s wonderful to hear old classics like “A Bushel and a Peck,” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before” "Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat.” The latter, led by Titus Burgess who plays crapshooter Nicely, Nicely and the Graham-Grant duet “Marry the Man Today” are the strongest numbers, but they’re also two of the last, so when things finally seem like they’re coming together, it’s time for the final bows.The show plays at the Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street, NY. For tickets, call (212) 307-4100 or visit http://www.guysanddollsbroadway.com/.
Christians might also like to know:
- Scantily clad showgirls
- A large painting in a restaurant in Havana depicts a man and woman nude
- One character depicts masochistic behavior (in what is supposed to be a humorous revelation)
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