Pantages Theatre – August 5, 2025
I got an email from Broadway In Hollywood/Pantages offering me $29 tickets to see this show so how could I say no?
I left home just before 6:00pm to allow enough time time to find parking and walk over to the Pantages. Pro tip: There are meters on Yucca with 2 hour parking until 8:00pm between Vine and Argyle and free parking on Yucca on the other side of Argyle – make sure to read the signs. Maps sent me up Rossmore, which turns into Vine so I turned right onto Yucca and vultured but found no open spots. As I was waiting at the light at Argyle, a car turned right from Argyle to Yucca and claimed the last remaining spot. Grrr. I turned around and while I was waiting at the same light facing the other direction, I watched someone grab a meter. So I gave up and drove down to Gower. There’s a big church on Carlos that often has open parking in front and I got lucky. It’s fun to walk 50 feet from an open spot on the street and see people paying $20 to park. I was standing in front of the Pantages by about 7:15 but Julie was stuck on the train. She ended up getting there at 7:27 for a 7:30 show. Plenty of time to get to our seats, but not enough time to pee first.
Some Like it Hot is an adaptation of the wonderful movie with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. I haven’t seen the movie in a long time, but there were definitely some differences. The show opens with Sweet Sue running a speakeasy in prohibition era Chicago. The speakeasy is raided and Sweet Sue is arrested. Her assistant bails her out and they decide to form an all woman band and travel across the country to San Diego, playing gigs along the way. Meanwhile the Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon characters, Joe and Jerry are trying to land work playing bass and saxophone, but they also tap dance. Yes tap. There is sooooooo much tapping in this show that it occasionally felt like I was watching 42nd Street. The boys tap their way into a job at a mob owned club and accidentally witness a triple murder. So they dress as women to escape and travel to California with the all girl band. Along the way, Joe (now Josephine) falls in love with the band’s singer, Sugar, and Jerry (now Daphne) discovers he loves being a woman. There is lots of humor, lots of tap dancing and a rather long Scooby Do-esque scene where the feds are chasing the mob who are chasing Josephine and Daphne – everyone running into and out of doors, costume changes, etc. (and I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!)
We were there on LGBTQ night so the applauding was extra loud when Daphne discovered her true self is as a woman. Honestly, I love it when people who aren’t normally portrayed get to see themselves on stage. I think it’s important for people to know there are other people like them in the world. It was beautifully handled with Jerry coming out to his longtime friend and gaining his acceptance. There was a race element as well, as Sugar (the Marilyn Monroe part) is played by a black woman and Jerry/Daphne is played by a black man. Race is addressed right at the start with Joe being allowed into a club where Jerry isn’t welcome and then singing about how they are a package deal. It’s not really addressed at all with the romance between Sugar and Joe/Jo.
I found myself distractedly watching the band very closely to see whether they were actually playing the instruments and at some points they were convincing and at others they weren’t. At some point I think I realized that when they were on stage as a band playing a song, they may have been really playing, but when they had their tap shoes on (because it didn’t take long for Jo and Daphne to convince the girls to tap) they probably were not. I mean, that trombone slided didn’t move when the tap shoes were on her feet. I also found it distracting that Sugar ended most of her sentences with an extra syllable. So “song” became “song-uh”. I didn’t know if that was just a characterization or whether that’s how the actress speaks, but I’m leaning toward the latter.
This musical is cute. It tries to touch on a few sensitive subjects, but at heart it’s a light comedy. If you like tap dancing, you will probably enjoy it. Bring your earplugs because it got a little too loud at times, but go see it. There’s a lottery available on the Broadway In Hollywood app and rush tickets.