Tommy Sutter (Ensemble), Jay Owens (Ensemble), Jamie LaVerdiere (Mulligan), and Devon Goffman (Spats)/Photo: Matthew Murphy, courtesy Broadway in Chicago
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One shouldn’t blame Broadway’s all-singing, all-dancing musical version of “Some Like It Hot,” now in its Chicago stop on a national tour, for liberally veering from its source material, Billy Wilder’s 1959 film that is often cited on lists of the funniest movies ever made. Wilder’s jazzy, Prohibition-era “Some Like It Hot” was also a liberal adaptation, from two previous films—one French and one German. Indeed, nearly all of Wilder’s films were sourced from previous plays, novels and films—for example, “Double Indemnity,” “The Apartment,” “Irma la Douce”—so loosely adapted by his firm hand that he routinely turned well-trodden or pulpy material into masterpieces.
The plot of both the film and the musical turn on the same opening shots. Literally. Two itinerant musicians end up in the orchestra in a Chicago club run by a mobster. The two men unwittingly enter the mobster’s office when the bad guys kill a snitch and are thus witnesses to the crime. Fearing they will be targets next, the musicians take off. Openings in an all-girl jazz band heading out on tour push the men into women’s clothes and onto a cross-country train ride where they try to stay in character, earn their keep by sprucing up the act and socializing, and manage their feelings toward the women. One falls for the star singer in the band, and the other becomes the love-object of a goofy millionaire who owns one of the hotels the band plays at. Edward Juvier, who plays Osgood, the millionaire, was my favorite performer in the show. Every moment he’s on stage is a comic delight.
The First National Touring Company of “Some Like It Hot.”/Photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy Broadway in Chicago
Though there’s plenty of music and a very funny dance scene in Wilder’s film, comedy, heightened by sexual tension, propels it. In the stage version, eighteen musical numbers, both lovely and catchy, and outstanding dancing provide most of the vitamins. The romantic chemistry between the characters never quite clicks, and it’s possible that the show’s creators never staked much on that happening. The age-old plot propellants of desires and thwarted sexual tension are replaced with more current moral tensions including the possibility of self-love among the gender-fluid, the imperatives of friendship when one’s friends’ identities change or expand, and the possibility of race-blind personal and professional relationships. These are worthy themes and, in Broadway shows, commercial ones, too. The crowd at the Cadillac cheered loudest for a number, “You Could’ve Knocked Me Over with a Feather,” in which one of the two men sings his/her/their new comfort after identifying, at least half-the-time, as a woman. It’s one of a genre of songs that has become a staple in musicals, and Tavis Kordell delivers a deeply moving version.
The ultimate strength of this show is the talented cast. Leads Kordell, Juvier, Matt Loehr, Leandra Ellis-Gaston and Devon Goffman are old-style Broadway belters and superb tap dancers. The whole cast handled the big tap production numbers that harken back to movie musicals. I really can’t remember as good a tapping cast since a long-ago New York production of “42nd Street.” The dancing climax is a madcap chase scene which must have taken months to choreograph and rehearse and alone is worth a trip to the show. In all, this is a stylish, energetic production with a breathtakingly gifted crew that delivers all the energy and glamor of a vintage-style musical with a new-school spin.
Broadway In Chicago’s “Some Like It Hot” is through November 3 at Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 West Randolph. Showtimes: Tuesdays-Thursdays, 7pm (with a Wednesday matinee at 1pm); Fridays, 7:30pm; Saturdays, 2pm and 7:30pm; Sundays 1pm (with a 6:30pm performance on Sunday, October 27). Tickets are $30-$125, available at cadillacpalacetheatre.com
