SOME LIKE IT HOT On Broadway - Reviews & News Thread — Page 3

Is there currently a Workshop going on?

https://www.backstage.com/casting/some-like-it-hot-epa-313583/

Is there currently a Workshop going on?

https://www.backstage.com/casting/some-like-it-hot-epa-313583/

WTF.

I suggest Superman in its original form. Really entertaining and a killer cast would put it over the top. Superman brand is widely known

2nd choice Lil Abner

Updated On: 2/9/20 at 06:06 PM

I saw SUGAR on Broadway and I doubt I've ever laughed harder for two hours!

That said and though Jule Styne's music is brilliant as always, the Bob Merrill lyrics contain more than a few clunkers and the book is hardly what one would call "tight".

I see nothing sacrilegious in re-adapting SOME LIKE IT HOT.

Whether the result will be any better is an open question. In an era in which we've all watched RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE, the cross-dressing may not be nearly as amusing as it seemed in 1972. In fact, some may find laughing at men in dresses offensive (though the joke is that they are so bad at it, not that drag is funny per se).

Mr Roxy said: "Saw Sugar. Agree Styne gave us his normal quality score but some lyrics brought that good work down . Cast was good. Gave it a 7.5 "

I saw it also and would give it no more than a 5. The score didn’t do it for me. I just didn’t think it worked...never being an Anthony Roberts fan didn’t help.

Uh oh.. someone’s just realised how un-diverse this team is......

Updated On: 2/10/21 at 06:23 PM

brian1973 said: "Uh oh.. someone’s justrealised how un-diverse this team is......"

In other words, you simply can’t fathom how a person of color could be hired based on their own merits? How racist of you...

JSquared2 said: "brian1973 said: "Uh oh.. someone’s justrealised how un-diverse this team is......"

In other words, you simply can’t fathom how a person of color could be hired based on their own merits? How racist of you..."

I’m not racist thanks. You completely misinterpreted my comment but I forgive you.

Updated On: 2/11/21 at 07:00 PM

SUGAR has a very funny Peter Stone book. Styne's score is jazzy delicious. Merrill's lyrics are DREADFUL... downright cringe worthy.

Matthew Lopez as a book writer had me scratching my head from the moment it was announcement.

As a POC who passes the "back of the bus" test, very happy to see Amber Ruffin as book writer... I just fear that the decision to include her has more to do with the current political zeitgeist than any authentic artistic impulse from originally announced creative team. If they had announce Ruffin's participation ORIGINALLY I would have been happily intrigued. Now it just looks like unaware gay men pandering and virtue signalling.

Bending the original creative impulse to the align with the current political winds (I suspect) ruined WAR PAINT. I sincerely hope my gut feelings about this SOME LIKE IT HOT are wrong.

Sure... I need to preface this with a disclaimer saying this is just my gut feeling about what could happened in the creative process.

And while I’ve chatted with the creative team... including a VERY funny encounter with Michael Korie in the men’s restroom on the night of the first preview in Chicago...I have absolutely no idea if what I’m about to write is true.

I saw The Powder And The Glory when it was first broadcast on PBS. In interviews the lead producer has said he also so saw the documentary around the same time, so I’m guessing he saw it on PBS too. Well.. at the time I thought this story would make a very entertaining musical. The potential for two women - accomplished, savvy, smart, ambitious - behaving badly based on what they “think” the other is doing could be catty fun...after all the book IS called WAR PAINT. The possibilities for high glamour hilarity coupled with an inspection of what it means to have “someone stuck in your head” were obviously in the Rubenstein/Arden rivalry story. And THAT is what - I believe- initially attracted those four cis gay white men to the material.

TPATG was having fun with the idea of these two titans trying to out maneuver each other in a catty way. Why not a musical?

I think most everyone excited to see it was thinking this would be some kind of stage singing version of THE WOMEN/DYNASTY/LEGENDS...and the the casting of LuPone and Ebersole made most gay men born before the 80s orgasm
a little.

But what was delivered was a high gloss evening of two women complaining at every turn how men have been oppressed them. That would be legit except for...

The only people on stage with the power to oppress were the two female leads. It was hard to take their feminist cries too seriously since they were only people in the WAR PAINT world acting like the most greedy and heinous of men.

Rubenstein is a sort of psycho-sexual predator of her gay employee. She takes glee in war profiteering (at least in the Chicago version).

Arden shows more interest in Dorian Lee than she ever showed in husband ... sexes reversed and you get the ambitious neglectful husband trope...okay.. that’s a slightly interesting twist. But every heterosexual man she encounters on that stage she emasculates. I’m not saying there is a double standard, I’m saying the feminist message is kind of undermined at everyturn by the actions of the two central characters

The reason I think the feminist complaints and cries seem at odds with WAR PAINT world as written by the creative team is that none of feels it organic to the audience.

I saw it twice in Chicago and once on Broadway and each time I thought “do these cis gay white male authors REALLY care about this issue?” “Are the feminist issues and struggles their story to tell? “Did they see that documentary and immediately think “I need to let the world know women are oppressed”?

I’m guessing not. I’m guessing that those gay males saw an opportunity to have some thoughtful fun.. but decided that it would go against the political zeitgeist to portray women as being catty. Which, of course, means that you have to suppress your initial artistic impulse and announce at every corner that you know that women have been wronged... and YOU should know too! Preaching to the choir. Yawn.

I wonder if they wrote it today if they would now feel an urgent need to add the element of race . The two leads singing about how much easier it is for a man to succeed exploiting the labor of women of color than it is for women to succeed while exploiting the labor of women of color.

I say tell the story that ACTUALLY made you want to pick up a pen and paper.. and if along way the writing shows you may be out of step with the world..keep writing it. Better to dinged for being authentic than dinged for being insincere.

Updated On: 2/12/21 at 05:02 PM