Within the comedy basic “Some Like It Sizzling,” Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play two musicians on the run from the mob who disguise themselves as ladies, and wind up making Hollywood historical past. The movie got here out in 1959, and 63 Oscar nights in the past, it was up for six awards.
Oscar emcee Bob Hope quipped, “Jack Lemmon was nominated for impersonating a lady. I bear in mind whenever you used to get arrested for that.”
Director Billy Wilder is alleged to have virtually pushed the 2 males into the women room to see if they might move for the actual factor (they did!). Curtis would wish to ice his ft each night time after a day spent in excessive heels. And Marilyn Monroe, as Sugar Cane, was pregnant throughout filming, and delayed manufacturing together with her continual lateness.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Photos
But it surely was a triumph anyway, mentioned U.T. Austin movie professor Noah Isenberg. “The essential reward for this movie was extraordinary,” he mentioned, “alongside the traces of ‘run, do not stroll’ to get to the theater to see this film.”
However not everybody ran to see it: “Some Like It Sizzling” landed on the Nationwide League of Decency’s checklist of “morally objectionable” movies. Now it is on different lists, together with #1 on the American Film Institute’s 100 best comedies of all time.
And it is nonetheless as humorous now because it was then.
To observe a trailer for “Some Like It Sizzling” click on on the video participant beneath:
Isenberg famous a scene the place Lemmon, as “Daphne,” tells Curtis {that a} millionaire desires to marry him [“Osgood proposed to me. We’re planning a June wedding!”]
“This scene with Jack Lemmon as Daphne taking part in the maracas within the resort room, they needed to time it in order that the jokes did not get drowned out by laughter,” Isenberg mentioned. The maracas had been added exactly for that objective: “You want to have the ability to time how lengthy roughly it will take an viewers to complete their stomach giggle in order that they’ll get to the subsequent line.”
Curtis: “However you are not a lady, you are a man! And why would a man wish to marry a man?”
Lemmon: “Safety!”
However past comedy, it was a movie about reinvention, made largely by individuals who had reinvented themselves. Marilyn Monroe was as soon as Norma Jean Mortenson; Bernie Schwartz turned Tony Curtis.
And now, the movie itself has been reinvented as a Broadway musical, with a brand new rating by the Tony- and Grammy-winning duo of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The bones are the identical, but it surely’s positively not only a rehash of the unique, mentioned director Casey Nicholaw. “I believe the factor that made the film particular that folks beloved, was you had been seeing these two film stars dressed as ladies. And that was humorous to individuals. But it surely would not fly now. And I do not wish to see it now. And I am probably not interested by doing that now, you already know? However I believe the invention of those guys, whereas they’ve to do this to get away from the legislation, is what makes our present completely different.”
Smith requested, “For those who can boil it down, what is the message?”
“Effectively, the message is mainly self-love, and everybody be good to one another,” Nicholaw replied.
“Some Like It Sizzling”
Smith requested Adrianna Hicks (“Aladdin,” “Six”), who performs Sugar Cane, “You are taking over the position that was created by Marilyn Monroe. Have been you somewhat intimidated?”
“I used to be, beginning out,” she replied, “as a result of I did not know what was going to be requested of me, particularly being a Black girl portraying an iconic White girl.”
Christian Borle (“Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing unit”) and J. Harrison Ghee (“Kinky Boots”) are within the Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon roles, and it is a exercise for them each night time. The present is one dance quantity after one other, and that is each a problem and a welcome change for a solid who needed to watch for this second by way of the pandemic. Borle mentioned, “We had been all traumatized for years not having the ability to be on stage. So, to be again and see these faces and see them laughing and see them blissful, that is why we do it.
“That, and the cash, you already know?”
Ghee, who identifies as non-binary, sees his position as Daphne as his ministry, and his calling is to open minds. He factors to a remark from a person within the viewers overheard by one of many crew: “He mentioned he was sitting subsequent to this man and he was with some girl. And I did my music in Act Two, ‘You Coulda Knocked Me Over With a Feather.’ They applauded, and the person simply, like, turned to the girl and goes, ‘I must deal with my son higher.’ That is my ministry. That is why I do what I do. I do not care a couple of assessment in a paper – it is reaching the hearts of the individuals sitting in these seats, that you just suppose just a bit in a different way than whenever you got here within the theater.”
To observe scenes from the Broadway manufacturing of “Some Like It Sizzling” click on on the video participant beneath:
The film and the Broadway present could not be extra completely different, however in some methods, they each really feel the identical. In response to Isenberg, Jack Lemmon, within the movie, “embraces his inside Daphne towards the top. And actually, Harrison Ghee, who performs Daphne on stage, says all of us, all of us have a Daphne inside us. It is a unprecedented efficiency.”
And speak about extraordinary: the well-known final line within the film was only a placeholder till they got here up with one thing higher, however Wilder stored it in after check audiences went wild.
Lemmon: “You do not perceive, Osgood, I am a person!”
Brown: “Effectively, no person’s excellent.”
Generally, in Hollywood and on Broadway, you simply by no means know what is going on to be scorching.
For more information:
Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.
