SUGAR/SOME LIKE IT HOT: The Musical

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:16pm

Am i correct in saying both are one and the same and that just the title was changed from SUGAR to the more recognizable SOME LIKE IT HOT.
Anyone here see the OBC. Was Elaine Joyce any good as "Sugar Kane".
How about Tony Roberts and Robert Morse?

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:22pm

To my knowledge and someone will correct me if I am wrong but SUGAR was on stage first and SOME LIKE IT HOT was a re-tooling of SUGAR with stuff cut. I like the SUGAR score but I refused to see the SOME LIKE IT HOT tour that came through a couple years ago.

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:23pm

You are correct. SUGAR is the Broadway musical version of the movie "Some Like It Hot".

I have the CD of the show The strongest numbers are the ones with Robert Morse, and the show has a typical fabulous Jule Styne overture. My favorite song in the show is "When You Meet a Man in Chicago".

BTW, good luck trying to find the CD now! I bought it when it first came out in 1999, and it was in print for only three or four years. VERY hard to find now!

Updated On: 9/5/05 at 05:23 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:35pm

my friend darius has the OBC on CD. i'll ask him to borrow it.
i should have picked this up when i picked up my original cd copy of PROMISES, PROMISES. both were released on the same day.

jule styne does have legendary overtures! FUNNY GIRL, GYPSY...
looking forward to hear how this one measures up.

thanks for the info CastAlbumFan.
Updated On: 9/5/05 at 05:35 PM

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:38pm

we did SUGAR in high school (way back in 1995)... i was in the ensemble... i actually liked the music a lot... especially the title song and the Society Syncopater numbers... quite a good show... i hope it gets revived or something

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:41pm

You are correct Marquise, both CDs were released on August 3rd, 1999. I remember the date because it's my birthday! In fact, I was buying them as a birthday present for myself!

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:44pm

It is a pretty good show -- I was just in a production of it myself. The score is quite strong, with a lot of great numbers, including "When You Meet a Man in Chicago", "Penniless Bums", "Doin' it for Sugar", Magic Nights", "Beauty That Drives a Man Mad" (thanks Wonderboy) "Beautiful Through and Through", and "It's Always Love". Peter Stone's book is hysterical too, and manages to keep the movie's pace and feel while containing some great new one-liners.

Edit: I forgot to mention that my signature is a line from "November Song", a number towards the end of the first act sung by the rich old millionaire Osgood Fielding and a chorus of dirty old men.
Updated On: 9/5/05 at 05:44 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:44pm

yes! i remember that day because i was still living in NYC. i purchased my cd at the virgin megastore in union square and noticed both side-by-side.
i had SUGAR in my hands but because i never heard the score decided not to chance it and put it back on the shelf.
BAD MOVE.

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 5:45pm

Let's not forget the ever popular "The Beauty That Drives Men Mad."

[Phantom2]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 6:00pm

Sugar is a fun show!

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 6:44pm

SUGAR is a blast! I directed it in stock years ago and had a fun time. The recording doesn't do the score the justice it deserves - adjusting some of the tempos helps the songs land better. And it's a great challenge for the costumer to find period heels on a budget for Daphne and Josie in a size 13!

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 9:39pm

I saw Sugar in San Francisco back in the early 70's with Robert Morse, Larry Kert, and Gale Gordon (who filled in for an ailing Cyril Ritchard). It was a lot of fun. Never bought the CD but still have the LP (but no phonograph on which to play it)

Updated On: 9/5/05 at 09:39 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 9:43pm

The original Broadway production has really ugly sets. There was some clever choreography (it WAS a Gower Champion show!)--especially the gangsters tap dancing the shots from their machine guns.

[rogerbartfan]

Posted: 9/15/05 at 11:08pm

The Gateway Playhouse in Bellport Long Island is doing this show right now. I just saw it this afternoon and it is a fun show and the cast is a top notch group. The tapping choregraphy is really quite good. It would be fun to see this show revived on Broadway (ideally with this cast in a perfect world) plus it would be a nice break from all the juke box musicals.

Really if you can get the chance to get out there and see it is playing until the 25th.

www.gatewayplayhouse.com

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 6:44am

I saw the original show. It was not bad

It had all sorts of trouble trying out. There was supposedly a funeral parlor in a speakeasy set in the beginning that did not work out & went pfft. Than Johnny Desmond played Spats Palazzo. The show was retooled & his singing part became a dancing part (Gower Champion was choreographer & director) with Steve Condos playing that role & Desmond leaving .Desmonds numbers went ( would loved to have heard them) & Condos big number "Tear The Town Apart" is not on the CD.

Never thought of the score as strong. Serviceable is the word that comes to mind

Updated On: 9/16/05 at 06:44 AM

[mominthecty]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 7:35am

Gateway Playhouse always does a great job.

It always makes me happy when people travel EAST to see a show!!

[rogerbartfan]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 7:44am

I was completely impressed with the Quality of the show. It was well worth the trip out there. Plus from what I understand they got lucky because they have all the sets and costumes from the tour that flopped a few years ago.

Also it is apparently quite a bit different from that tour they dropped a lot of the songs that weren't working which shortened the show a bit.

I realized something that I miss a lot in the shows of today a nice long overture. The show has potential, hell if I had the money I would back it.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 8:17am

Tony Curtis was the worst thing about the last production that toured. He was unbelievably bad. He couldn't sing a lick. In fact I can't think of anyone I've ever seen on stage who was as ill equipped in a leading role. I enjoyed the rest of the show though as well as the Jule Styne score. It really helps if you have the perfect Sugar too. Back in the seventies, a youngish Bernadette Peters was to have starred as Sugar Cane in a post Broadway mounting of the show at the Ahmanson Theater in L.A. however "Mack and Mabel" was getting ready to go into rehearsals at the same time at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. After firing Marcia Rodd and Kelly Garrett as Mabel, they brought in Bernadette who was able to leave the "Sugar" production (Leland Palmer took over for her). Peters would have been ideal at the time in the Monroe part. I always wondered why they hadn't used her in the original production instead of Elaine Joyce.

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 8:26am

Who would be great in the leads if this show was revived on the Great White Way today?

[rogerbartfan]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 8:32am

I am biased but I would keep the Current leads from the Gateway playhouse (Larry Raben and Kirk Mouser). It would be nice to see the show mounted without a lot of stunt casting IMHO.

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 9:03am

Nathan & Matthew - we've yet to see them in drag together.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 9:51am

Sugar was a nice way to kill a few hours in 1972 and the high points have all been mentioned: choreography, musical staging, the cast particularly Robert Morse. I remember being somewhat let down. The whole was far less than the sum of the parts, and wouldn't be worth a revival.

Sugar was also a case of a stage version adding nothing to the telling of the story. The movie tells the same story and does it much much better.

Michael Stewart was originally asked to do the book, and he wanted to change the setting to the 40s and make Sugar and the two men into an Andrews Sisters type singing group. Billy Wilder said no and they went to Peter Stone.

The tryout was tortured. Was this the show where the set designer was fired and Robin Wagner was brought in? I can't remember. A friend saw the first preview in DC when they didn't have an ending and Morse and Roberts basically came out on stage and threw their purses into the audience. The opening was delayed several weeks and they may have added another out-of-town date.

Even though it opened at about the cut-off date for the 1972 Tonys, Merrick (and presumably Champion) asked that it not be considered that year which is why it is in the 1973 nominations. They were still putting changes in and polishing the ones already there.

Merrick claimed that Sugar made a profit although it did solid business for only about 6 months (due to theatre parties) out of a 15 month run. There was no national tour, but they did do a couple of dates on the west coast.

[twogaab2]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 10:16am

Saw the original cast-with Morse, Roberts, Richard, Joyce. Cast was fantasic!!! Score was a very mixed bag. Saw the revised version with Morse and Kurt in Houston in the 80s. It played much better-the songs that were cut should not have been.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 12:54pm

"In fact I can't think of anyone I've ever seen on stage who was as ill equipped in a leading role."

I can. David Hasselhoff.

[Theatrical Landladies]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 7:56am

I bought the SUGAR recording in about 1978 simply because the score was by JULE STYNE and I have always loved it especially, BEAUTY THAT DRIVES THE MEN MAD, WE COULD BE CLOSE and MEET A MAN IN CHICACO.
The title was changed to SLIH when Tommy Steele (U.K. leading man) got the rights for the first U.K. production (1992). He managed to get STYNE to add a title song which is the 11 o'clock number in ACT 2 and is very good there are a couple of other new songs which are ok. With the addition of the new song in act 2 Meet a Man in Chicago moved to the first act with Sugar singing it to reporters at the train station. The sets and costumes (Terry Parsons)were incredible - very art deco. Unfortunately T.S. (who also directed) changed the structure so it was no longer a three hander and he was very much the lead. This spoiled the balance of the show and he cut WE COULD BE CLOSE!!! Strangely Steele was very uncomfortable in drag and there is hardly a photograph of him as Geraldine! He couldn't get the show into the PALLADIUM where he had had all is other hits and the coach parties of old ladies just wouldn't come to SOHO (Prince Edward). He went off after a couple of months with a sprained ankle (those damn high heels!!)and the show closed ignominiously soon after.

The cast recording is worth buying for SOME LIKE IT HOT title song.