Madeline Khan - "(I'm Not) Getting Married Today"
When two geniuses get together, magic happens.
"Getting Married Today" is a patter song from the musical Company (1970) with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It is sung by the manic Amy, as the thought of marriage sends her into a panic on the day of her wedding. It is often misreferred to as "Not Getting Married Today".
With 68 words sung in a total of 11 seconds, "Getting Married Today" was notable for being the most difficult musical song with the fastest verse in history, until "Guns and Ships" from the 2015 musical Hamilton eclipsed this record, with 19 words in 3 seconds.
"Getting Married Today" was conceived as "Sondheim’s psychotic notion of a patter song" to simulate the sensation of having a mental breakdown through verbal diarrhea and constantly changing the subject mid-sentence.
Madeline Gail Kahn (born Madeline Gail Wolfson; September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an American actress, comedian, voice actress, and singer, known for comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including What's Up, Doc? (1972), Young Frankenstein (1974), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), and her Academy Award–nominated roles in Paper Moon (1973) and Blazing Saddles (1974).
Kahn made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1968, and received Tony Award nominations for the play In the Boom Boom Room in 1974 and for the original production of the musical On the Twentieth Century in 1978. She starred as Madeline Wayne on the short-lived sitcom Oh Madeline (1983–84) and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1987 for an ABC Afterschool Special. She received a third Tony Award nomination for the revival of the play Born Yesterday in 1989, before winning the 1993 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the comedy The Sisters Rosensweig. Her other film appearances included The Cheap Detective (1978), City Heat (1984), Clue (1985), and Nixon (1995).
So today, with a little laugh, I choose Madeline Khan’s version of Steven Sondheim’s “Getting Married Today” as my, not today Satan, step down, jump back, song for a, with so many road blocks why have the road, maybe tomorrow, or maybe next year, Thursday.