Broadway By Design: Gregg Barnes Brings SOME LIKE IT HOT from Page to Stage

In Broadway by Design, BroadwayWorld is shining a spotlight on the stellar designs of this Broadway season, show by show. Today, we continue the series with the costume designer extraordinaire from Some Like It Hot, two-time Tony winner Gregg Barnes.

Set in Chicago when Prohibition has everyone thirsty for a little excitement, Some Like It Hot is the rollicking story of two musicians forced to flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit. With gangsters hot on their heels, they're on the run as the newest members of the swingingest big band ever to cross the country. Can they hide in plain sight without completely losing themselves? Or will the mob, the truth, and maybe even love itself finally catch up to them?

Where did the design process begin? Barnes started with the source material. "Most people know Some Like it Hot from Billy Wilder's extraordinary 1959 film," he explains. "The costumes were designed by the legendary Orry-Kelly and the film was shot in black and white so there are inevitably a lot of expectations for an audience entering the theater to experience a new musical based on a film that has been beloved for over 60 years.

"The original story was centered around the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Murder, but our creative team pushed the date froward a bit to 1933 which sets the story firmly in the depression and which changes the texture of the piece and the silhouettes significantly. It also gave me license to explore a world that is very different from the later 1920's and search out new historical inspirations."

"I looked at industrial deco architecture, photography of daily life in the depression, the glamour of the movies, jazz clubs and speakeasies and the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance and the astonishing cultural effect that movement had on music and fashion and...well, just about everything.

"Luckily the story embraces a lot of these cultural phenomena," Barnes explains. "Train travel, nightclubs, the mid-west, the California seaside and even a quick trip to Mexico! Some Like It Hot is my favorite kind of design project because the story covers a lot of varied walks of life. You have the humble looks of the depression and the exuberance of nightclub performance clothing...and a lot in between!"

Where did he find his biggest design challenges? "[It] was navigating a large musical in a post Covid world," he said. "The amazing community of costume shops in New York that are the backbone of the Broadway Theater (and far beyond that) lost a lot of irreplaceable artists during the shutdown and so we had to expand our usual reach to make everything happen. Just off the top of my head we were in shops in Los Angeles, Thailand, Milwaukee, Baltimore, the UK, Italy and of course the internet. I know I'm forgetting a few! I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining however because the gift of this expanded community is that there is much to be learned from each and every artist that comes to the table.

"Some Like It Hot has been a joy to be a part of from the very first time I heard a snippet of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's stunning score. Casey Nicholaw our fearless leader always assembles a community of artists that quickly become family and I'm honored to be along for the ride!"

Some Like It Hot is running on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.