REVIEW: SOME LIKE IT HOT—Segerstrom Center for the Arts
- TheShowReport
- Oct 7
- 5 min read
Some Like It Hot roars and sizzles hilariously, with a zest and an appeal that just can’t be denied!
OCTOBER 7—COSTA MESA, CA
Taking a classic film comedy — especially one that plays fast and loose with gender and sexuality — and turning it into a big Broadway-style musical is far from a sure thing in these contemporary times.
But the creative team of the 2022 stage version of the 1959 movie SOME LIKE IT HOT brings fresh perspectives and a different kind of fun to the iconic film that memorably starred Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.
Don’t get me wrong. The stage production boasts palpitating performances, dandy twists and turns, razzmatazz dancing and a whole lotta energy (under the savvy, playful direction and choreography of Casey Nicholaw) — all of which should please uberfan audiences without alienating advocates of the original. It’s actually the second adaptation of the movie (the first was in 1972 starring Robert Morse with a score by Jule Styne) — with others following, such as a Bollywood remake and a production in a casino in Atlantic City starring Joe Namath.
It’s also a really fun story. The film followed two musicians, Joe and Jerry, who witness a gang shootout in Depression-era Chicago, and in order to escape getting rubbed out by wiseguy Spats, they disguise themselves as women, Josephine and Daphne, and join an all-girl band traveling to California. Both are smitten by the singer of the band Sugar Cane, who wants to be a movie star, so Joe pretends to be a Hollywood screenwriter. Meanwhile millionaire Osgood falls for Daphne. Etc., etc.
But this new musical adaptation’s many plusses add up to almost a new plot. It’s 1933, not 1929; they wind up in California rather than Florida, which allows them to spend a night carousing in Mexico. There’s also a new backstory for Jerry and Joe; they have been like brothers since childhood, but Joe’s parents abandoned him, so he grew up next door at Jerry’s house.
The undercurrents are also quite different. Instead of just running wild with the movie’s overriding straight-men-in-drag-fleeing-for-their-lives gag after witnessing a murder, a new script tweaks the leading duo’s perspectives just enough to give the story a surprising, contemporary feel and make it more about self-discovery than guys-in-heels.
This rethink doesn’t just transfer a hit film (which, incidentally, was based on the 1935 French film “Fanfare of Love”) and plop it on stage, but rather aims for 21st century relevance, tweaking several characters and storylines and injecting underlying themes in an effort to promote enlightened values such as racial, ethnic, and gender identity — while still producing lots of laughs.
So, what could have been a dated drag farce on the big stage ends up instead as a glitzy, frenetic and funny show, with hyperactive choreography, a talented cast, and a jazzy score with multiple 11 o’clock numbers that are immensely likable — in other words, a musical filled with fun, energy, moxie and pluck.
While Tony Curtis adopted a Cary Grant persona for his other bon vivant disguise, this script has Joe (Matt Loehr) playing a German screenwriter — one of several clever hat-tips to the film, along with a very animated Tavis Kordell as Jerry. Throughout the show, Mr. Loehr’s comic timing and singing is impeccable, and makes his character’s latent empathy quite touching and well-earned.
But it’s Tavis Kordell’s other character, Daphne who gives this adaptation its heart without losing its humor, whose self-actualizing number, “You Coulda Knocked Me Over with a Feather,” is really the show’s highlight. Daphne, who may have the most consequential change, identifies here as non-binary. So, it’s not a huge surprise to find “her” saying things like, “I feel finally seen.”
The role of Sweet Sue is also considerably beefed up and Dequina Moore delivers on every level, from her powerful vocals (including some terrific scat singing) to her hysterically funny delivery — especially with Minnie, Sue’s wing-woman, played to loopy perfection by Devon Hadsell.
Another surprising twist: Sugar Cane (Leandra Ellis-Gaston) is no longer like the Marilyn Monroe character in the film, a vulnerable, sexy dumb blonde who says outright “I’m not very bright.” Now she’s a strong Black woman full of allure, who sings (“A Darker Shade of Blue,” “At the Old Majestic Nickle Matinee,” “Ride Out the Storm”) about how as a child growing up in a small town in Georgia she liked to go to the movies, but “could only use the balcony. Like the movies, life could be that black and white.” So now she wants to break the color barrier in Hollywood, so that “a young girl just like me” would “see someone just like her/so her hopes and dreams would never have to stay/at the old Majestic Nickle Matinee.”
Also lending solid support are Matt Allen as lawman Mulligan and Devon Goffman as kingpin mobster Spats (who gets one of the best exit lines in ages).
The production elements, like Scott Pask’s art deco fantasia of a set, Gregg Barnes’s glittering costumes and Natasha Katz’s pearlescent lights are a vivid celebration of Broadway-style glamor and excess, serving up razzle-dazzle on a silver-plated platter.
It’s really quite dazzling just how well they took the film’s narrative, based on the original screenplay by the film’s director, Billy Wilder, and brought it forward into our contemporary times with all those topical concepts at the forefront. You couldn’t ask for a better remix, expanding on an idea that they could only play with back in 1959.
SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS, SOME LIKE IT HOT: Lyrics by MARK SHAIMAN & SCOTT WITTMANM; Music by MARC SHAIMAN; Orchestrations by CHARLIE ROSEN & BRYAN CARTER; Book by MATTHEW LOPEZ & AMBER RUFFIN; Based on the MGM film SOME LIKE IT HOT, with a screenplay by I.A.L. DIAMOND & BILLY WILDER; Directed and Choreographed by CASEY NICHOLAW; Music Direction by MARK BINNS; Music Supervision by MARY-MITCHELL CAMPBELL & DARRYL ARCHIBALD; Sets by SCOTT PASK; Costumes by GREGG BARNES; Lights by NATASHA KATZ; Sound by BRIAN RONAN; Hair and Wigs by JOSH MARQUETTE; Makeup by MILAGROS MEDINA-CERDIERA; Production Stage Managers DONAVAN DOLAN, LAURA C. NELSON & JALON PAYTON.
CAST: MATT LOEHR as Joe; J. TAVIS KORDELL as Jerry; LEANDRA ELLIS-GASTON as Sugar; EDWARD JUVIER as Osgood; DEQUINA MOORE as Sweet Sue; MATT ALLEN as Mulligan; DEVON GOFFMAN as Spats; DEVON HADSELL as Minnie; DARIEN GRAGO as Nellie; DEVIN CORTEZ as Mack; JAMAL STONE as Sonny; MICHAEL SKRZEK as Toothpick Charlie & Bar Manager; NISSI SHALOME as Dolores; ASHLEY MARIE ARNOLD as Ginger; EMILY KELLY as Vivian; STEPHEN MICHAEL LANGTON as Man with Suitcase; KELLY BERMAN; MADELINE KENDALL; RANEASE RYANN; JONATHAN DUVELSON; DREW FRANKLIN; BRYAN THOMAS HUNT; TIM FUCHS; KELLY SHEEHAN; AUSTIN DUNN; JULIA YAMEEN; IAN CAMPAYNO; ADENA ERSHOW.
SOME LIKE IT HOT plays from October 7th through October 19th, 2025 at SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Costa Mesa. Performances are Tuesday-Friday at 7:30pm; Saturday at 2:00pm and 7:30pm; Sundays at 1:00pm & 6:30pm. 2 Hours, 30 Min. For tickets, visit www.scfta.org
CHRIS DANIELS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT REVIEWER
THE SHOW REPORT
PHOTO CREDITS COURTESY SCFTA Public Relations
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