Guys and Dolls Revival, with Oliver Platt, to Play the Nederlander
By Andrew Gans
08 Oct 2008
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Oliver Platt
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| photo by Mark Seliger | After 12 years, the Nederlander Theatre will have a new tenant. Following the record-breaking run of Jonathan Larson's Rent, the West 41st Street theatre will house the upcoming revival of Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls.
As previously announced, Tony Award Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys, The Who's Tommy) will helm the revival, which will feature choreography by Sergio Trujillo.
Performances will begin at the newly refurbished Nederlander Feb. 3, 2009, with an official opening scheduled for March 1.
Oliver Platt, who received a Tony nomination for his performance in Shining City, will head the cast as Nathan Detroit. Additional casting and creative team members will be announced shortly.
Platt was also seen on stage in Ubu, Elliot Loves and Twelfth Night. He has been Emmy-nominated for his work in "Huff," "The West Wing" and "Nip/Tuck." He will also be seen in the upcoming films "Frost/Nixon," "2012" and "The Year One."
In a July 28 statement Jo Sullivan Loesser, widow of the late Frank Loesser, said, "I couldn't be more delighted that, after the longest period ever between Broadway productions of Guys and Dolls, Des McAnuff has agreed to direct this brand new production. This is the first reunion of Des with Frank's work since his brilliant production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which I absolutely adored."
Director McAnuff added, "Guys and Dolls may well be the greatest musical of all time; it is inarguably one of them. I consider it a tremendous responsibility and a wonderful opportunity to direct it on Broadway. It has been a career-long goal of mine."
Based on a story and characters by Damon Runyon, Guys and Dolls features music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. The original Broadway production opened at Broadway's 46th Street Theatre in November 1950, running 1,200 performances before closing Nov. 28, 1953. Among the premiere cast were Robert Alda as Sky Masterson, Isabel Bigley as Sarah Brown, Sam Levene as Nathan Detroit and Vivian Blaine as Miss Adelaide. Blaine re-created her role for the 1955 film, which also starred Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson, Jean Simmons as Sarah Brown and Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit.
The most recent Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls featured Nathan Lane and Faith Prince. That Tony-winning revival, directed by Jerry Zaks, played 1,143 performances at the Martin Beck Theatre from March 1992-January 1995.
Recently named artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Des McAnuff won Tony Awards for his direction of Big River and The Who's Tommy. He has also directed the Broadway productions of The Farnsworth Invention, Jersey Boys, 700 Sundays, Dracula the Musical and A Walk in the Woods. McAnuff was artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego for 20 years. A native of Scarborough, Ontario, he spent a number of years working with Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival's Public Theater, where he directed classics. He was a director at the Stratford Festival in the 1980s during the tenure of John Hirsch.
Sergio Trujillo was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his choreography for the Tony-winning musical Jersey Boys. He has also choreographed All Shook Up, the City Center Encores! productions of Kismet and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as well as Zhivago and The Wiz, both at the La Jolla Playhouse.
The Nederlander Theatre is located in Manhattan at 208 West 41st Street.
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