Lead producer Howard Panter for Ambassador Theatre Group and co-producers Tulchin/Bartner and Darren Bagert announced today that Lauren Graham (Golden Globe Award nominee for "Gilmore Girls") will appear as "Miss Adelaide" opposite Oliver Platt's "Nathan Detroit" in the new Broadway production of GUYS AND DOLLS. The first joint Broadway project by two-time Tony Award winning director Des McAnuff and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominated choreographer Sergio Trujillo since their collaboration on the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys, GUYS AND DOLLS will begin previews on February 3, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). Opening Night is March 1.
"We are thrilled with the casting of Lauren as Miss Adelaide. She is the perfect combination of leading lady and natural comedienne and I know she will be the ideal romantic foil for Oliver Platt's Nathan," said lead producer Howard Panter. "To be making my Broadway debut in this role, in this musical, is truly thrilling," said Ms. Graham.
Lauren Graham is well known for her critically acclaimed performance as Lorelai Gilmore on "Gilmore Girls," for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress in a Drama Series," two Screen Actors Guild Awards for "Outstanding Female Actor in a Drama Series" and two Television Critics Association Awards for "Individual Achievement in Drama and Comedy." Additionally, she has earned two Teen Choice Awards for "Choice Parental Unit" and a "Best Actress" nod from Viewers for Quality Television. Her many feature film roles include the current Flash of Genius opposite Greg Kinnear for Universal and Spyglass Entertainment, as well as Universal's blockbuster comedy Evan Almighty, alongside Steve Carell, Because I Said So, opposite Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore, Bad Santa, opposite Billy Bob Thornton, The Pacifier, The Amateurs with Jeff Bridges, Nightwatch, and One True Thing, with Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep. She recently starred alongside Matthew Perry and Hillary Swank in Birds of America, which premiered this January at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and completed production on The Dream of the Romans, starring Jeff Daniels. She last appeared onstage in 2002 in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Once in a Lifetime.
Packed with such classic hits as "Fugue for Tinhorns," "A Bushel and a Peck," "Adelaide's Lament," "I'll Know," "Guys and Dolls," "More I Cannot Wish You," "Luck Be A Lady," and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," GUYS AND DOLLS features music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure," two short stories by Damon Runyon, it also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably "Pick the Winner".
The musical comedy was first produced on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre, opening on November 24, 1950. It was directed by George S. Kaufman and starred Robert Alda, Sam Levene, Isabel Bigley and Vivian Blaine. The musical enjoyed an initial run of 1,201 performances, winning five 1951 Tony Awards including Best Musical.
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