We All Like It Warm: Like A Blanket Right Out Of The Laundry - Some Like It Hot by Axel Duke

Some Like It Hot is everything modern theatre can be and everything traditional theatre could never achieve. The 2022 Broadway adaptation of the 1959 UA/MGM film barreled onto the scene like a freight train, racking up awards and raking in reviews. Two months after its Broadway closing, It would win the 2024 Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album, and within the year, would be arriving at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.

Some Like It Hot is the story of a duo of dancing gig musicians, who adopt feminine personas to join an all-women's traveling band, and escape from prohibition-era Chicago. Both the 2022 stage adaptation, and the 1959 film sit squarely within the comedy genre, and on top of the comedy gold mine that is gender; but while the 1959 film finds humor through mocking those who deviate from the norm, the 2022 musical finds humor in mocking the norm itself. Some Like It Hot is empathetic in all the ways its progenitor could never be, and from that empathy, comes a much stronger comedy, and a much warmer story.

That warmth at the heart of Some Like It Hot radiates from every aspect of the show, and welcomes the audience from the moment the curtain rises. Everything from Scott Pask’s vibrant and lived-in sets to the charming and exceedingly well-tailored costumes of Gregg Barnes draws the audience in. And when the audience has been brought close, it reaches out, and offers the kindness of today in the memory of the past, as the dancers take the stage. The technical fidelity of Some Like It Hot’s cast is as impressive as it is obvious, and with every number, the audiences’ jaws seem to drop lower and lower. 

The entire cast of Some Like It Hot is, first and foremost, composed of dancers. Not to say that they were vocally or dramatically lacking – they were incredible – but rather to say that they were such incredible physical storytellers, that the songs and words felt like compliments to the dance, rather than vice versa. The cast’s physicality is so vibrant, energy can’t help but spill off the stage, and as it fills the isles, the world of Some Like It Hot seems to soak into your soul.

Tavis Kordell stars as Jerry/Daphne, the standing bass player of Sweet Sue And Her Society Syncopators, and one-half of the leading duo, alongside Matt Loehr. Matt Loehr stars as Joe/Josephine, the saxophone player for Sweet Sue And Her Society Syncopators, and the other half of the leading duo, along with Travis Kordell. Loehr and Kordell are both virtuosic movers, as through their dance, song, and word, they move themselves and the audience as if it were nothing.

Some Like It Hot is all the spectacle of the golden age, all the fun of the silver screen, and all the love of a home-cooked meal. It’s a one-of-a-kind show made, with kindness, for every kind of person. It's my kind of show.