Some humor is so outdated that it seems irresponsible to stage in 2025. A good argument can be made that “Some Like It Hot,” the 1959 Billy Wilder comedy about two men who witness a murder and go undercover with an all women’s band, didn’t need to be adapted into a Broadway musical.
Surely now — when the rights and legislative existence of trans people are under attack — is not the time for a narrative that enacts the transphobic myth of a man putting on a wig and tricking a woman into sleeping with him. And yet, if it’s possible to redeem this film, the charmingly vibrant “Some Like It Hot” musical, playing on tour as part of the RBTL season at West Herr Auditorium Theater through May 18, comes pretty darn close.
Curtain rises on a speakeasy in 1933 Chicago, where the commanding Sweet Sue (Tarra Conner Jones) croons about the tough times of the Great Depression. After getting arrested for selling alcohol, she decides her next business venture will be leading a traveling all girl’s band. Meanwhile, lifelong friends Joe (Matt Loehr) and Jerry (a captivating Jay Owens) also struggle to find work. Unlike the all-white movie cast, this “Some Like It Hot” actually fills the roles of some of its jazz musicians, including Sue, Jerry, and Sugar, with Black actors and gently acknowledges what this would’ve meant under Jim Crow racism.
When the inseparable Joe and Jerry land a tap dancing gig that will hire both of them, they walk in on their boss Spats (the ominously deadpan Devon Goffman) with his gun pointed at a dead body. They’ll be the next corpses unless they can stay far from Spats’s sights. Joe convinces Jerry that their best bet is donning polka dot dresses, lipstick, and wigs, to play sax and bass with Sweet Sue’s band as they go on tour.
The original film includes the occasional song from the band, but this adaptation whole-heartedly embraces a 1930s musical comedy aesthetic. Sweet Sue’s band’s performances become full production dance numbers, including the title song. Pant suits and sparkly blue vests (part of Gregg Barnes’s beautifully colorful costume design) allow the dancers the full athleticism of director Casey Nicholaw’s Tony Award-winning swing and tap based choreography.
The book by playwright Robert Lopez (“The Inheritance”) and comedian and talk show host Amber Ruffin (“Late Night with Seth Meyers”) softens the cringe of the original entertaining-but-it-was-the-1950s movie, though it swaps some of the more transphobic jokes for ageist jabs about how old Joe looks. The intermission break falls at a lackluster part in the plot, but the story picks up in the second act when Jerry finds that presenting as a woman bassist named Daphne has become less of a disguise and more of a homecoming.
The new score, penned by stage and screen songwriting veterans Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray,” “Catch Me If You Can”), is upbeat and brassy, though not their most memorable (they may have peaked with “Pickwick Triplets” from “Only Murders in the Building”). Fans of the duo’s work in the TV show “Smash” will get a thrill seeing “Let’s Be Bad” repurposed from the fictional musical “Bombshell.”
And it wouldn’t be a musical comedy without two sets of romantic couples. Sugar, an aspiring movie star with an alcohol problem, is played by Leandra Ellis-Gaston, a compelling leading lady who mixes notes of Marilyn Monroe’s easy charm with an effortless belt. Joe befriends her while dressed as Josephine and takes up a new disguise to woo her as a German screenwriter. They fall in love through a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-inspired routine: Sugar wearing a white gown and Joe in suit and tails, dancing the world away in front of a starry backdrop.
The secondary love story is more surprising. Daphne’s love interest is the “poor little millionaire” Osgood (Edward Juvier), who whisks her off to Mexico and woos her by comparing her to a butterfly. While falling for Osgood, she also falls in love with her own bigender identity, embracing that she is both Jerry and Daphne. “I finally feel seen,” she tells Joe. Owens is a marvelous talent — it’s hard to look away from their steady tap footwork or the joy they exude in “You Coulda Knocked Me Over With a Feather.” Their warmth heightens the endearing moments of friendship between Daphne and Sugar, or Jerry and Joe.
“Some Like It Hot” is a solid night of entertainment for those who love classic musical comedy. There’s atmospheric night clubs under hazy lights with sparkling dresses. Spinning bellhops strumming ukuleles. A show-stopping routine, “Tip Tap Trouble,” involving a gun chase, tap dance and phenomenal use of slamming doors. Without being confined to the gender and racial limitations of 1959, “Some Like It Hot” delivers on good, old-fashioned entertainment.
“Some Like It Hot” plays as part of the 2024-2025 M&T Bank Broadway Season presented by RBTL & Albert Nocciolino. Tickets and more info here.
Katherine Varga is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
