About the work
Some Like It Hot is a musical by Marc Shaiman (music) and Scott Wittman & Shaiman (lyrics) with a book by Matthew López and Amber Ruffin, premiered on Broadway in 2022. Based on Billy Wilder's 1959 film classic of the same name, it won four Tony Awards.
Plot
In Prohibition-era Chicago, the musicians Joe and Jerry accidentally witness a mafia massacre. Fleeing the gangsters, they disguise themselves as women and join an all-female band touring by train to California. While Joe, as "Josephine," woos the singer Sugar, Jerry, as "Daphne," discovers an entirely new side of himself. The fast-paced comedy of errors races from one comic climax to the next until all the disguises unravel.
Cultural significance
Some Like It Hot transforms perhaps the most famous film classic in comedy history into a high-energy dance musical in the 1920s big-band sound. Shaiman and Wittman capture the glamour of the era, while the book expands the material with a modern, sensitive treatment of gender identity. With spectacular tap dance and swing, it became one of the most acclaimed musicals of its season.