Review: SOME LIKE IT HOT Sizzles and Shakes at Dr. Phillips Center

I got my hair cut last Thursday which prompted a bit of an identity crisis at work over the weekend. Newer co-workers who ever only saw me with long hair and a goatee were shocked to see a clean-shaven, nicely groomed young man. Old-timers who remembered how I looked pre-covid were delighted at seeing the “old” me again. And several more ended up confusing me with a fellow co-worker with which I now shared the same hair style, eyewear, and skin tone. One particular co-worker simply asked aloud jokingly, “When did we hire Albert’s little brother?” All this to say, one’s identity gets created primarily through personal choices of self-presentation. However, that identity goes through a secondary process, as we also take into account how others react to it. Whether we embrace our identity in the face of acceptance or rejection from others becomes the ultimate test. SOME LIKE IT HOT takes that idea to the next level as it presents a variety of characters who take on a variety of identities, finding a truth in their deception as they learn more about themselves and each other.

When SOME LIKE IT HOT began on Broadway, it was celebrated for updating a classic film to modern audiences in ways and themes not readily apparent from the original source material. After having played a successful year-long run on Broadway, the show concluded on December 30, 2023. Nine long months later, it finally mounted a national tour within the greater United States. And now, for a spectacular pre-Christmas week, Central Florida gets to bear witness to the storied spectacle as Broadway visitors did. Much of what’s been seen on Broadway has been lovingly transferred to this touring production, making it a show not to be missed.

Based on the 1959 Billy Wilder comedy of the same name, itself an Americanized remake of the 1935 French farce Fanfare of Love, SOME LIKE IT HOT in its musical form opens not with the expected Joe and Jerry (Matt Loehr and Tavis Kordell, respectively), but rather on chanteuse Sweet Sue (Tarra Conner Jones). She’s performing at a Chicago speakeasy that’s just been raided by federal agents. Upon her release from jail, Sweet Sue tells her assistant Minnie (Devon Hadsell) that she plans on going clean by creating an all-girl band to tour the country before settling in San Diego. Sweet Sue and Minnie begin recruiting girl musicians. Meanwhile, saxophonist Joe and bass player Jerry are desperate to work, so much so that they resort to auditioning at the mob-run Cheetah Club, headed by Chicago gangster Spats Colombo (Devon Goffman). Initially, the club rejects the black Jerry, until he and Joe wow Spats himself with a two-fer tap dance routine, the Tip-Tap Twins. Spats decides to sign them on as an early-dinner act, with future bookings contingent upon their success as the “salad course.”

Eager Joe wants Spats to give them a prime entertainment slot, so he and Jerry rush into Spats’ office… just as Colombo and his two goons Mack (Tommy Sutter) and Sonny (Jay Owens) kill the narc Toothpick Charlie (Bryan Thomas Hunt), suspected of informing the FBI on Spats’ criminal dealings. A chase ensues as Spats and his men try to capture Joe and Jerry, who in a moment of desperation decide the best way to avoid detection is to dress up as women and evade the men pursuing them. In order to get out of Chicago fast, Joe and Jerry decide to take the place of the female saxophonist and bass player that Sweet Sue’s been looking to hire. This gets them on a train to the next town, giving them a head start at evading Spats Colombo. Whilst on the train, Josephine and Geraldine – er, Daphne – meet Sugar Kane (Leandra Ellis-Gaston), the lead singer of Sweet Sue’s Society Syncopaters. Josephine is instantly smitten, though she has to remind herself, “I’m a girl, I’m a girl,” in order to avoid any romantic entanglement with Sugar, who freely admits to falling for male musicians, saxophonists in particular.

As the band tours throughout the country, Daphne gets more comfortable as one of the girls. She suggests to Sweet Sue that the band include a dance routine to liven up the act. Initially, Daphne and Sugar team up, but a jealous Josephine worms her way in to turn the Tip-Tap Twins (Joe and Jerry’s original act) into the Tip-Tap Trio. By the time they reach San Diego, word has gotten back to Spats Colombo about a three-person tap dancing act, so he heads to California as well. In pursuit of Spats is federal agent Mulligan (Jamie LaVerdiere), intent on catching Spats once and for all. At the Hotel Coronado, millionaire owner Osgood Fielding (Edward Juvier) is intent on catching Daphne, the new love of his life. All the while, Josephine sheds her disguise to don another – that of European screenwriter Kip von der Plotz – so he can catch Sugar. Yet amidst all these dual and triple identities, Sweet Sue simply wants her girl group to succeed well enough to earn the capital to open her own club. And she has just the right investor in mind to do so.

When comparing the screenplay of 1959’s Some Like It Hot to the libretto of 2022’s SOME LIKE IT HOT, the basic structure of the plot is still present. Key plot points are still met: the witness to a murder, the escape by train, the arrival at resort, random identity hijinks and romances. However, the dialogue has been rewritten from the ground up. As someone intimately familiar with the 1959 film, I kept a mental tally of whenever lines from the film were reused in the musical. By the end of Act One, there were a dozen or so lines, including my personal favorite, “I can stop anytime I want to, only I don’t want to.” Act Two fared worse, with probably only five or six. (Sadly, the effectively poignant “It’s not how long it takes, it’s who’s taking you” did not make the cut.) Thus, to call this a remake of the musical feels like a cheap shot. This is a truly original libretto that is built upon the narrative foundation of the film, but creating wholly original approaches to the characters. There’s also a marked difference in the pacing and the style of dialogue between the film and the stage. The film’s got this easygoing, late-50s back-and-forth that feels like a throwback to its era. The stage knows and respects that era, but modernizes it through dialogue that would reach a contemporary audience. Topics that Hollywood censors would try to smother or soften are addressed head-on, with lines of dialogue addressing race relations, wage discrepancy, and gender inequality, to name a few. It’s in this respect that SOME LIKE IT HOT is superior to the more dated aspects of an otherwise timeless 65-year-old film.

That’s not to begrudge the success of Some Like It Hot ’59. After all, this was a film that opened a door to even allow ideas that strayed away from the heteronormative to be presented to a mainstream audience. This film, through the lens of comedy, better let viewers understand drag culture. Even if it were presented as merely a means to an end, a practical disguise to outside forces, this was a pioneering film that allowed characters to freely express themselves in whatever wardrobe they desired, whatever identity they wished to create. It’s apparent early on when Jerry, in both the film and the musical, chooses the name Daphne. The privilege of choice is afforded to many in mainstream society, but has to be fought for by oppressed minorities. Something we take for granted like a chosen name has a much deeper meaning in the trans community. And Some Like It Hot, ten years before the Stonewall riots that put a face on the fight for LGBTQ rights, made audiences sympathize with a character who preferred the name Daphne to Geraldine.

More importantly, Some Like It Hot presents these allegedly wild and radical ideas of personal choice without judgment from any of the characters in the film. If there were any negative judgment for doing drag, it would only come from a disapproving audience, as a reflection of them and not the material. Instead, audiences of 1959 were captivated by the smartly-written script (one of Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s best), the winning performances, and the clever set-ups to let viewers be “in” on the joke. We know that’s Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in a dress, but the other characters do not. It’s an exciting waiting game to see when the other shoe will drop, should it drop at all. Modern parlance would easily throw around the phrase “politically incorrect” as a way to describe the dated, late-50s attitude toward cross-dressing and even the hinting of homosexuality. But it must be acknowledged and celebrated that such a context was even presented in a mainstream Hollywood comedy without the usual code-switching or suggestive double-entendres that LGBTQ audiences could easily recognize whilst such dialogue might go over a straight viewer’s head.

In addition, the uses of drag for both the film and the musical has always been a progressive stance that calls for acceptance of the practice. Yes, the 1959 film does make it a bit of a comic absurdity. No matter how much makeup is caked on Tony Curtis’ face, it’s still Tony Curtis wearing rouge. The musical makes the disconnect even more obvious by sparing the actors such an extreme makeover. Rather, a simple wig and a pair of glasses turn Joe into Josephine. Jerry becomes Daphne with a wig and her tube of lipstick. But there’s no need for the extensive pretense of changing one’s face a la Mrs. Doubtfire or Tootsie. It’s a way that SOME LIKE IT HOT helps to normalize the ease to which one’s identity should be attained. When Daphne feels like Daphne, it’s when she wears a killer red dress and pumps. When Josephine finally becomes Joe, he exposes his truest self at the risk of death. And through it all, their transformations become one of classy artistry. They don’t turn drag into a punchline. Rather, SOME LIKE IT HOT makes the characters’ drag appearances into a respectable art form. Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown perform the most ridiculously chaste tango ever in the 1959 film. By the time this dance number gets revisited in the stage musical, it now comes with choreography and finesse that makes Daphne a more capable performer rather than a merely adequate one. They allow her to embrace this side of her personality rather than use it merely as a clever deception.

Likewise, the dancing of SOME LIKE IT HOT celebrates form and movement from all performers regardless how they identify. There’s equitable treatment to both male and female presenting dancers among the ensemble. Complex sequences with the high energy of a Lindy hop or traditional swing are perfected by dance captains Tim Fuchs and Rachael Britton Hart, as they lead men and women alike across the dance floor on equal status. This extends not just to the choreography by Casey Nicholaw (also the Broadway musical’s director), but within the costumes designed by Gregg Barnes. Form fitting and practical, yet not overtly sexualizing one gender over another. The 1920s aesthetic is lovingly preserved, as well as a progressive shift in period fashion that is inclusive of all genders and body types. It's hard to believe that the Art Deco stylings of the 1920s are now a hundred years removed from contemporary design today. From the recreated Hotel Del Corando to the sleek Mexican border night club to the flapper-glam Cheetah Club, every set recreated on this stage is stylized to befit the fantasy on the stage. It allows us to glimpse into a world, one hundred years removed, without needing to fully immerse ourselves in it.

A majority of what’s seen on our Dr. Phillips Center stage has been largely faithful to how SOME LIKE IT HOT played on Broadway from 2022 through 2023. Several compromises have been made due to this touring production adapting to stages of various shapes and sizes throughout the country. One such casualty is the steam train that whisks Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopaters away from Chicago. Broadway saw a three-dimensional full-size prop dominate the stage, creating an angular perspective to the scene rather than the flat dimensions of the scrim used at Dr. Phillips Center. Likewise, when Sugar and Kip (well, Joe) have their Hollywood fantasy of “Let’s Dance the World Away,” an ethereal staircase has now been removed from the set pieces, replaced with a tasteful, if bare, endless starlit sky. Finally, when Osgood and the Girls saunter off to Mexico for a night of revelry, what had been metal archways on the stage to convey that outdoor dance hall has now been replaced by a more travel-friendly but still sleekly-designed transparent scrim to emulate the architecture. Such compromises from stationary stage to caravan tour are to be expected, and they do not take away from the enjoyment of the show.  After all, this is a touring production that needs to find its own identity within every show place, making it work for them as much as for the theatre.

Regardless the size and/or limitations of a theatre space, the talent on stage helps to make it all shine together as a unified production tailor-made for the audience. Taking the lead in this production are Matt Loehr and Tavis Kordell, playing Joe/Josephine/Kip and Jerry/Daphne. Kordell, in particular, commanded a lot of applause through the night thanks to his tender, gentle approach to Daphne. Whereas Loehr leaned into the comedy by giving Josephine an obvious, occasional campy falsetto (very much akin to the film’s Josephine being comically dubbed by Paul Frees), Kordell took on Daphne’s elocutions with a more serious-minded approach to creating a different identity. He ensured that his voice had a booming and a deeper cadence whenever he presented as Jerry. However, when presenting as Daphne, the deeper cadence remained, only not as booming. Instead, Daphne adopts a similarly sassy tone without rising in pitch so dramatically. It’s now a subtle effect, one that initially felt like Kordell wasn’t even trying a falsetto. But it made his approach a more cerebral, introspective examination of how one presents their chosen identity. Rather than disconnect from the character to appeal to a broad audience, Kordell embraced and showcased Jerry’s more nuanced discovery of femininity through Daphne. Thus, the character is no longer played for laughs, but for sympathy and understanding. It became apparent by the show’s end when, upon Joe asking which name to use, Daphne tells him, “You can use either, so long as you use them with love and respect.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be SOME LIKE IT HOT without the standout character of Sugar Kane. The 2022 musical takes a swift departure from Marilyn Monroe’s breathy, aloof portrayal of the character. Instead, Sugar has become more strongheaded of a figure, one with a fuller personality and richer portrayal. Although Marilyn absolutely dominates the role in the 1959 film, Sugar had been written less as the third protagonist to the story and more as a deuteragonist to flesh out Joe’s narrative. She’s only ever seen as a beautiful plaything that Joe must learn to woo – either through Josephine or his “Shell Oil, Jr.” persona. In the musical, Sugar Kane is given a much more rewarding arc. She’s still fed up with the musicians that make her weak, but she also longs to escape to another world beyond her stifled hometown in Georgia. More importantly, Sugar Kane is explicitly a black woman. This invites a whole new reading to the character, as well as a variety of confrontations about how poorly race relations were handled in the early twentieth century.

From the outset, the musical looks at the difficulties of black entertainers below the Mason-Dixon line. When Sweet Sue decides to form an all-girl band, her assistant Minnie suggests Florida (a nod to the original film’s Miami locale). Sue glares at Minnie and says, “Look at my skin and ask that question again!” before declaring their destination will be sunny San Diego. Southern California is more prosperous, but more importantly, safer than the Old South. Similarly, Sugar Kane makes pointed remarks throughout her dreamy “At the Old Majestic Nickel Matinee” about how “those who looked like [her] could only use the balcony.” Growing up in a segregated community in the South meant inequality from birth, in a society that not only accepted it, but harshly enforced it. Sugar’s desire to leave her world behind for Hollywood also is a desire for change even within the fantasy worlds she saw on the screen, as evident by the later lyric, “I would pretend that it was me up there / But with Mary Pickford playing my maid.”

The musical thus imbues within Sugar Kane a character who isn’t some flighty whimsical blonde, but rather a woman that wants more for her life, and for those like her. Hollywood may be a fantasy, but it’s also an inspiration. If she can’t find the inspiration on the screen, then she will become it for a future child in that darkened theatre. Leandra Ellis-Gaston personifies Sugar with this headstrong characterization, creating a figure in the story that becomes admirable for her ambition rather than merely her sex appeal. The treatment of the female characters throughout the entire musical shows a greater respect for them beyond the 1959 film. Sweet Sue’s no longer limited to a stern, authoritarian boss of the band. Rather, she’s a shrewd businesswoman looking to not owe her living to any company or any man. Tarra Conner Jones makes the character a playful, unyielding figure who can hold her own opposite a gun-toting gangster, a sassy singer, or a handsy hotel man. She commands our attention as soon as the show starts, holding on to it by that final note as well.

The music of SOME LIKE IT HOT truly helps to distinguish this stage musical from the film. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, best known for the musical Hairspray!, had previously written a variety of Marilyn Monroe-focused songs for the two-season NBC musical drama “Smash.” It came as no surprise that the first songwriters approached to turn Some Like It Hot into a musical would be Shaiman and Wittman. In a bit of clever metatextual crossover, the duo borrowed a song from “Smash” to use in SOME LIKE IT HOT. “Let’s Be Bad” originally featured in the television series as a prospective musical number for Marilyn to sing in Some Like It Hot. It’s been repurposed here not as a Sugar Kane number, but rather a raucous and excitable song and dance for Osgood Fielding and the Society Syncopaters. Thus, it brings Shaiman and Wittman’s own Marilyn journey full circle, as a song written for a fictional musical number in a fictional retelling of Marilyn Monroe now became a song written for a real musical about a real Marilyn Monroe film.

SOME LIKE IT HOT plays around with our approach to identity by conveying three different searches for a character’s true self. Sure, the story began as a traditional gangster picture with bad guys on a literal search for witnesses to murder. But within these searches are inner struggles that our main characters to through. Within Jerry, he learns to embrace what has been created through Daphne, and ultimately loves herself for it. Within Joe, it takes his own deceptions as Josephine and Kip to realize his own true self is worth saving. And within Sugar, her desire to escape into a Hollywood fantasy becomes a desire to turn such fantasies into reality. She can be herself on a stage or in front of a camera in ways that were denied to her in her world. The musical thus becomes a celebration of our identities, of our chosen presentations, and of the multiple spirits within each of us striving to share their truths.

SOME LIKE IT HOT plays exclusively at Dr. Phillips Center from December 17 through December 22. Tickets can be acquired online or at the box office, pending availability.

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