Good Old Reliable Nathan

Broadway seems to be doing well. Usually each year, a day or two after the Tony Awards, several shows announce they'll be closing. It generally means that ticket sales were lousy before the awards but they held on, hoping in vain that exposure on the telecast would spark a boost at the box office.

This year, only the revival of Guys & Dolls seems to be throwing in the terrycloth. It ends this weekend but its producers have announced that it will live on in a national tour being planned for 2010-2011. Unless they go out and lasso a few incredible stars — which they did not do for Broadway — I doubt this will happen. You don't mount a tour for a show that received tepid reviews and only lasted 113 performances in New York.

I didn't see this production and kinda wish I had. It's often said in the theater that Guys & Dolls is a bulletproof show; that no matter what you do with it, it always works. This incarnation apparently didn't. It might have been interesting to see it and try to figure out why.