Some Like It Hot

Musical (2022)
Book by Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman
Based on the MGM Motion Picture Some Like It Hot (1959)
Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw
Broadway in Boston
Citizens Opera House, Washington Street, Boston
January 28 – February 8, 2026

Music Supervision by Mary-Mitchell Campbell and Darryl Archibald; Scenic Design: Scott Pask; Costume Design: Gregg Barnes; Lighting Design: Natasha Katz; Sound Design: Brian Ronan

With Matt Loehr (Joe, Josephine), Tavis Kordell (Jerry, Daphne), Leandra Ellis-Gaston(Sugar), Edward Juvier (Osgood), Dequina Moore (Sweet Sue), Matt Allen (Mulligan), Devon Goffman (Spats), Devon Hadsell (Minnie)

Joe (Matt Loehr), a saxophonist, and Jerry (Tavis Kordell), a bassist, are working as musicians in a jazz speakeasy in Chicago owned by a mobster named Spats (Devon Goffman), and Joe and Jerry inadvertently witness a mob murder there. Knowing that, as witnesses to the crime, their lives are in danger, they flee in haste. But they also know that Spats and his gang will pursue them relentlessly. So, in an inspired moment, Joe and Jerry don women’s clothing and get enlisted as women in Sweet Sue’s (Dequina Moore) all-women traveling band. Joe pretends to be Josephine, a somewhat older woman, who, while en route to Miami by train with the band, winds up getting friendly with Sugar (Leandra Ellis-Gaston), the star vocalist of the band. When they arrive in Miami, Jerry, now dressed elegantly as Daphne, is pursued relentlessly by a somewhat goofy but charming gazillionaire named Osgood (Edward Juvier). Joe is really taken with Sugar and switches between his cover as Josephine in order to gain her friendship, and, as a man, whose background he invents as an heir to an oil fortune, in pursuing her romantically. Things get complicated when Spats arrives in Miami, and when Osgood proposes marriage to Daphne, who is really Jerry, and when Joe, who has really fallen for Sugar has to face some truths with her.

This energetic and dance-heavy musical moves right along with a spunky plot, a good amount of suspense, and a great deal of fun from the cross-dressing theme. In the film, Tony Curtis, as Joe, and Jack Lemmon, as Jerry, made film history, with the great wan Joe E. Brown doing a great turn as Osgood. The scenes in which Osgood courts Daphne in that film are legendary, and it is to the great credit of this Broadway musical production that it reaches a good amount of the poignancy and the humor that the film did.

One of the great innovations of this stage production is the diversity of its cast. Jerry is played by a man of color, and, with the setting of the plot in Florida in the 1930’s, and the character’s romance with Osgood, a white man played wonderfully goofily by Edward Juvier, that actually does contribute quite a bit to the subtext of the story. And, unlike Jack Lemmon’s Daphne, who was clearly played as a spoof in the film, the Daphne of this production as embodied wonderfully by Tavis Cordell, is truly sensuous and attractive as a cross-dressed woman. There is another little twist on the original as well, which you can find out about in the spoilers section below.

As Joe, Matt Loehr plays a dapper, though slightly aging, leading man who plays the even more aged woman Josephine, and he carries both parts very well. There is something Mrs. Doubtfire-ish about his Josephine in an entirely endearing way. Here, as well, is an interesting variation on the original, with Loehr, a white actor, as Joe-Josephine, romancing here, a black Sugar, played by Leandra Ellis-Gaston. (In the film, Sugar was played by Marilyn Monroe.)

The show is highly kinetic, made so partially by the comedically suspenseful plot, but mostly by the terrific choreography by Casey Nicholaw that abounds within it. Every number is replete with tap dancing galore and all kinds of fancy and inventive footwork by the minions onstage. Both Loehr and Cordell are great tap dancers, but so are lots of other cast members. Things keep hopping and the excellence of the choreography accounts for a good deal of that.

Acting is good throughout, but, as in the film, the relationship between Osgood and Daphne really takes the cake, and Edward Juvier’s Osgood, wonderfully goofy, and Tavis Cordell’s sensuous Daphne, make it all happen convincingly and with lots of laughs and a bit of a sigh.

The music by Marc Shaiman is bouncy and jazzy, and though not particularly memorable, keeps things moving. The lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman have a dose of wit about them and do raise a twinkle from time to time. The orchestra does a fine job and all in all helps support a perfectly enjoyable production.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)