The Broadway tour of Some Like it Hot has landed at the Fisher Theater for two weeks and it is a high-flying energy-filled musical theater treat.
It is not worth another review praising the musical, fresh off Broadway with a handful of Tony Awards to boot, except to say that I love standard book musicals, and this is one terrific story-driven musical absolutely crammed with jazz-era songs and spectacular dances brought to you by director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw with music by Scott WIttman and Marc Shaiman (Hairspray, Catch Me if you Can) and book by Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin based on the MGM movie.
The entire cast is exceptional, and I laughed heartily throughout the evening. Told in standard scene-song-scene-song style with great big musical numbers that are heavy on tap, the format is broken only once and it is brilliant – Nicholaw’s dance-infused chase scene in the penultimate scene is simply brilliant stagework.
I loved this entire show from top to bottom and you will too. It was criticized a bit on Broadway for it’s “woke” approach to the story — but I don’t think there is anything unusually woke about it – this is a different time than the 1959 Billy WIlder film, and I like to think of the ending as course-correction rather than wokeness. This ending simply couldn’t have existed in a slapstick movie on a screen in 1959.
Very Highly Recommended.
Some Like it Hot continues at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre through October 13th. Tickets at BroadwayInDetroit.com
Mostly Musical Theatre 
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