My Variety Review: 'Some Like It Hot' Musical

Taking a classic film comedy — especially one that plays fast and loose with gender and sexuality — and turning it into a big Broadway musical is far from a sure thing in these contemporary times. But the creative team of the latest stage musical version of the 1959 movie “Some Like It Hot” brings fresh perspectives and a different kind of fun to the iconic film that memorably starred Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.

This stage production boasts swell performances, dandy twists and turns, razzmatazz dancing and a whole lotta energy (under the savvy, playful direction and choreography of Casey Nicholaw) — all of which should please new audiences without alienating fans of the original. If the songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray,” “Smash”) don’t always score high marks, well: Nobody’s perfect.

The musical’s narrative very loosely follows the original screenplay by Billy Wilder (who also directed the film) and his collaborator I.A.L. Diamond. (In the program credits, the show is “based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture,” without giving any nod to the original writing duo.) The new script by Tony Award-winner Mathew López (“The Inheritance”) and Amber Ruffin — with Christian Borle and Joe Farrell giving “additional material” — re-adjusts the film’s time and setting from the last hurrah of the Roaring ’20s to the tougher job market — and stylish Art Deco period — of 1933, nicely realized through Scott Pask’s sets and Gregg Barnes’ costumes.

Band leader Sweet Sue (NaTasha Yvette Williams) and lead singer Sugar Kane (Adrianna Hicks) are both Black and their integrated all-girl band now heads West instead of South with new saxophonist Joe (Christian Borle) and bassist Jerry (J. Harrison Ghee) fleeing in disguise as Josephine and Daphne after witnessing a mob hit in Chicago.

But the major change is one of attitude. Instead of just running wild with the movie’s overriding straight-men-in-drag-fleeing-for-their-lives gag, this show tweaks the leading duo’s perspectives enough to give the story a surprising, contemporary feel and make it more about self-discovery than guys-in-heels. This rethink doesn’t just transfer a hit film and plop it on stage, but rather transforms it into a genuine study of gender and identity — but still one with lots laughs.

The script also gives more of a backstory, fuller relationships and cultural context to the musician pals, to Sugar and even to the show’s sugar daddy, Osgood (Kevin Del Aguila, in a performance that is both endearing and fabulous). The dynamic between Borle and Ghee’s characters — and their femme counterparts — are recalibrated, all to the better. Instead of vying for the affections of a love object, they are now discovering the complexity of their feminine roles.

That complexity also extends to the character’s appearances. Instead of the very prim and pretty Josephine of the film, Borle’s alter ego bears a striking resemblance to Jackie Hoffman — and a running gag about her lived-in looks is can’t-miss schtick. While Curtis adopted a Cary Grant persona for his other bon vivant disguise, this script…..|CONTINUED|