Following its successful Broadway run in 2023, Some Like It Hot: The Musical is starting a national US tour with a new cast, including Leandra Ellis-Gaston as Sugar. As the show makes its first stop in Schenectady, NY, J. Peter Bergman has reviewed it for The Berkshire Edge.
“Some Like It Hot is a complicated and funny musical based on the complicated and funny film created by Billy Wilder for Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. The musical was a big hit on Broadway last year, winning several Tony Awards, including one for the dances created by Casey Nicholaw. This National Tour edition replicates them beautifully; this alone makes the production something worth seeing. The company that plays the hilarious cast of characters is simply wonderful and equally worth your audience time. They aren’t the equals of Lemmon, Curtis, Monroe, and Joe. E Brown of course, but they are delightful performers who pull off the difficult transitions that the plot demands.
With minor changes from the book, the story and the characters have remained the same. The show is amusing, with enough belly laughs to keep you genuinely happy, and the score is jumpy, bumpy, and won’t make you grumpy. What makes the show work so well, however, is the performance of Jerry/Daphne, played by Tavis Kordell, and the dancing which is almost as exhausting to watch as it must be to perform.
Her equal is the band’s singer, Sugar, played here by Leandra Ellis-Gaston, one of the prettiest women on our stage today. She looks divine in the 1933-style clothing; sings with a fine, light voice; and acts the loving and the anger Sugar suffers with a flair. Sugar and Daphne become best friends in the show, much as they did in the movie, but with very different results. When they are together, it is hard to tell who is the more realistic woman, Sugar or Daphne.
Unlike Curtis in the film, Joe, played by Matt Loehr, had to confess his two impersonations to Sugar. Loehr handles the scene well, and it turns into his finest moment in the musical. He is a superb tap dancer, which aids him through the many numbers in which he performs. He and Kordell together are a brilliant pairing as their differences in height and style add to the comedy of the piece.”
And if you’d like to know more about how Some Like It Hot: The Musical expands upon – and diverges from – the movie, you can read a series of posts on the show here.
The Marilyn Report 
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