Tony Awards – Reel Time With Richard Ades

Staged film adaptation goes heavy on spectacle

Cast members show off some of the high-flying choreography that won Some Like It Hot one of its four Tony Awards on Broadway.

By Richard Ades

“Well, nobody’s perfect.” It’s ironic that one of the most famous last lines in the history of cinema belongs to a film that’s pretty much perfect.

Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as Depression-era musicians Joe and Jerry, who are being chased by gangsters because they accidentally witnessed a mob execution. Disguising themselves as women, they join an “all-girl band,” where their attempts to fit in are complicated by Joe’s attraction to the lead singer and Jerry’s acquisition of an admirer who refuses to take “no” for an answer.

It’s always risky trying to adapt a work as universally loved and admired as Wilder’s 1959 comedy, so it’s not surprising that the stage version of Some Like It Hot fails to achieve the original’s perfection. What’s disappointing is that it could have been a lot better.

With a book by Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin, and songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the musical opened on Broadway in late 2022 and closed just over a year later. Despite the relatively short run, the show garnered a slew of Tony nominations and won four. Besides best actor in a musical, it took home awards for costume design, choreography and orchestrations.

These wins point to some of the show’s strong points, which are also evident in the touring production that opened Tuesday at Columbus’s Ohio Theatre.

Director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw imbues the many song-and-dance numbers with high kicks and precision tapping, all backed by Charlie Rosen and Bryan Carter’s brassy, jazzy orchestrations. Meanwhile, Gregg Barnes outfits the characters in imaginative period costumes. Combined with Scott Pask’s gorgeous set designs, it all adds up to a colorful spectacle.

In a way, that’s part of the reason the show falls short of the film that inspired it. Far from a spectacle, Wilder’s classic was the comic but heartfelt tale of two men who disguise themselves to stay alive and find their lives altered as a result. Not only do they learn what it’s like to be a woman in a man’s world, but one of them finds that living as a woman is strangely fulfilling.

In the touring show, Matt Loehr and Tavis Kordell star as buddies Joe and Jerry, respectively, who don dresses and disguise themselves as Josephine and Daphne. Both get plenty of opportunities to show off their dancing and singing skills, but they have fewer chances to define their evolving characters. And Jerry, in particular, evolves a lot, becoming increasingly comfortable in the guise of the invented Daphne. (Like the Tony-winning actor who played Jerry on Broadway, Kordell identifies as nonbinary.)

As Sugar, the band’s lead singer, Leandra Ellis-Gaston displays fairly decent pipes but was sometimes overpowered by the band on opening night. In fact, several singers faced the same problem, pointing to the possibility that the sound balance was in need of tweaking. A related problem is that the lyrics were often hard to make out, weakening songs that weren’t that memorable to begin with.

One singer who managed to come through loud and clear on Tuesday was DeQuina Moore, who gives a powerhouse performance as band leader Sweet Sue. Filling out the leading cast members, Edward Juvier is a hoot as Osgood, the millionaire who takes a liking to Daphne.

Of the two acts, the second comes closer to the spirit of the movie, slowing down enough to allow Loehr, Kordell and Ellis-Gaston to flesh out their characters. However, it ends with a seemingly endless slapstick number that involves chases and slamming doors and would have been more at home in a bedroom farce.

Moral: If you’re going to adapt a classic movie for the stage, it helps if you understand just what made the movie great.

Broadway in Columbus will present Some Like It Hot through Nov. 23 at the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St., Columbus. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. through Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (including intermission). For ticket information, visit columbus.broadway.com. For information on future tour stops, visit somelikeithotmusical.com.

Decades later, ‘The Lion King’ still roars

The Lion King begins with “The Circle of Life,” which celebrates the birth of King Mufasa’s son, Simba. (Photo by Matthew Murphy; photos courtesy of Disney)

By Richard Ades

It was almost exactly 20 years ago that I first saw the onstage version of The Lion King. After seeing it again last week, I looked up my review of that earlier production and realized it applies equally well to the current touring show.

That says a lot for the quality of the new production and for the timelessness of director Julie Taymor’s vision. The Lion King could have been just another Disney cartoon adapted for the stage, but Taymor employed African-inspired costumes, masks, puppetry and dance moves and turned it into a cultural phenomenon.

For her efforts, in 1998 Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony Award for best direction of a musical. In addition, the original Broadway production won well-deserved Tonys for scenic design (Richard Hudson), costume design (Taymor), lighting design (Donald Holder) and choreography (Garth Fagan) as well as the overall award for best musical.

Though the beautiful music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice (and others) did not win a Tony, they contribute to the show’s groundbreaking character, starting with the fact that some of the key lyrics are in Swahili.

Maybe it’s less surprising that the book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi was Tony-less, as the story is simple and predictable: A majestic lion rules wisely over his kingdom until a jealous brother engineers his demise, after which the monarch’s young son must decide whether to fight for justice and his position as the rightful heir.

It’s a tale as old as time—or at least as old as Hamlet. What makes it compelling is the show’s spirit and style, as delivered by a committed cast of fine actors, singers and dancers.

Cheetahs and giraffes are among the animals creatively portrayed with the help of life-size puppets. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

Major figures in the current touring show are Gerald Ramsey as the noble King Mufasa; Peter Hargrave as his villainous brother, Scar; Nick LaMedica as Mufasa’s hornbill steward, Zazu; Darian Sanders as the grownup version of the prince, Simba; and Khalifa White as Simba’s friend, Nala.

Appearing in alternate performances as the younger versions of the latter two characters are Bryce Christian Thompson and Julian Villela as Simba, and Ritisha Chakraborty and Leela Chopra as Nala.

Finally, special mention must be made of Mukelisiwe Goba as Rafiki, the all-seeing mandrill (or is she a baboon?) who serves as viewers’ guide and narrator. When she gets things started with her full-throated rendition of “The Circle of Life,” we know this iconic show is in good hands.

As it was from the beginning, thanks to Julie Taymor.

P.S. Danya Taymor followed in her aunt’s footsteps Sunday by winning the Tony Award for best direction of a musical (The Outsiders, which also won for best musical). Obviously, talent runs in the family.

CAPA and Broadway in Columbus will present The Lion King through July 7 at the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St., Columbus. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays (except July 4), 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays, plus 2 p.m. June 20, 7:30 p.m. July 1 and 1 p.m. July 4. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (including intermission). For ticket information, visit columbus.broadway.com. For information on future tour stops, visit lionking.com/tour/.

Sondheim tunes still the best part of revised ‘Company’

Britney Coleman as Bobbie in the national tour of Company (Photos by Matthew Murphy for Murphy Made)

By Richard Ades

When I first saw Company at a local university in 2006, I loved the tunes but thought the student cast failed to make the episodic show seem coherent. But now, after seeing a touring production based on the Tony-winning 2021-22 Broadway revival, I suspect it wasn’t entirely their fault.

Maybe this is simply a hard show to pull off.

Once again, I loved the Stephen Sondheim tunes but had trouble caring about the characters singing them, especially Bobbie, the 35-year-old New Yorker around whom the show revolves. Forgoing a traditional plot, Company merely tags along with Bobbie as she visits various engaged and married friends who think she should be getting engaged and married herself.

First of all, we should note that Bobbie (played here by Britney Coleman) is a re-gendered version of Bobby, who was the male protagonist when the show debuted on Broadway in 1970. Much has been said and written about the character’s sex change, which Sondheim himself approved before his death in November 2021. Some claim it makes the show more relatable, while others have called it problematic.

Since I’ve had trouble with the show whether it had a male or a female lead, I can’t say the change was pivotal to my enjoyment. But it may have added unforeseen complications.

For one thing, you can’t make a woman seem too desperate to find a husband in 2024 without dredging up patriarchal stereotypes. Maybe that’s one reason Bobbie doesn’t seem as concerned about being single as Bobby was—which makes the show seem even less dramatically coherent than it was originally. If Bobbie isn’t motivated to question her marital status, then what is she doing except spending time with her various coupled friends?

Various friends help Bobbie (Britney Coleman, center) celebrate her 35^th birthday.

The gender change also necessitates tangential tweaks that are sometimes awkward. The biggest one involves the protagonist’s much-divorced friend Joanne, who propositions Bobby in a key scene of the original musical. In this version, Joanne (Judy McLane) invites Bobbie to have an affair, not with her, but with her current husband (Derrick Davis).

Why would Joanne do that, and why would she assume her obviously devoted hubby would even consider being unfaithful? The situation is so odd that it almost overshadows McLane’s stellar rendition of one of the show’s musical highlights, “The Ladies Who Lunch.”

Even though this Company doesn’t work as a whole, individual scenes do entertain thanks to a talented cast working under Marianne Elliot’s direction. One of the best involves two gay friends (another revision from the original show) who are about to get married. Paul (Jhardon DiShon Milton) is eager, but Jamie (Matt Rodin) has a severe case of cold feet, as he explains in the comically rapid-fire “Getting Married Today.”

Several of the other musical highlights involve Coleman’s Bobbie, including Act I’s “Someone Is Waiting” and “Marry Me a Little,” and Act II’s “Side by Side by Side.” Coleman emotes a bit too frantically on the finale, “Being Alive”—perhaps trying to make up for the show’s emotional deficiencies—but her beautiful voice serves the other numbers well.

One musical highlight that doesn’t involve Bobbie is “Another Hundred People,” in which PJ (Tyler Hardwick) sings about the ever-growing population that gives New York its atmosphere of excitement and underlying desperation.

The number also showcases Bunny Christie’s scenic design by using three letters from the musical’s title to create people-sized props that spell out “NYC.” Christie is similarly creative throughout, staging most of the scenes inside various-sized boxes with illuminated edges, as if the action were taking place within living snapshots.

It’s too bad the show doesn’t have much dramatic cohesion to go along with the visual cohesion Christie’s designs provide. It’s also too bad that not all of its updates are completely successful. But at least Company has Sondheim’s music and lyrics, which remain timeless.

Broadway in Columbus and CAPA will present Company through Feb. 18 at the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St., Columbus. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (including intermission). Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. For ticket information, visit columbus.broadway.com or capa.com. For information about future Company tour stops, visit broadway.org.

‘Doubtfire’ actor reprises Tony-nominated star turn

Daniel (Rob McClure) effects a Scottish accent to convince ex-wife Miranda (Maggie Lakis) to hire the fictitious Mrs. Doubtfire as their children’s nanny. (Photos courtesy of Broadway in Columbus)

By Richard Ades

Mrs. Doubtfire’s brief 2021-22 Broadway run was most acclaimed for Rob McClure’s Tony-nominated performance in the starring role. So it’s fortunate that McClure is re-donning the title nanny’s wig, mask and padding for the North American tour.

As unemployed actor Daniel Hillard, McClure trots out a cornucopia of voices and impersonations, all delivered with manic energy almost worthy of the late Robin Williams, who originated the role in the 1993 film.

Fueling the plot is the fact that Daniel is a devoted father but a so-so husband, leading wife Miranda (Maggie Lakis) to seek a divorce. When a judge threatens to award Miranda sole custody of their kids unless Daniel can get his financial act together, the distraught dad concocts a plan to keep on seeing them.

With makeup and hairstyling help from brother Frank (Aaron Kaburick) and his husband, Andre (Nik Alexander), Daniel invents an aging Scotswoman named Mrs. Doubtfire. In this disguise, he lands the job of taking care of his offspring while Miranda is busy launching her own clothing line.

Daniel (Rob McClure) shares dance steps with a group of chefs in one of the show’s production numbers.

Emotion would seem to be built into the story, dealing as it does with Daniel’s attempt to hold onto his family. But the musical’s writers (Kary Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell) and director (Jerry Zaks) put more of the focus on comedy and spectacle.

The comedy largely revolves around Daniel’s attempts to bamboozle a court liaison (Romelda Teron Benjamin) charged with checking up on him. As for the spectacle, it involves dance numbers that are sometimes shoehorned in on the thinnest of excuses. For example, when Daniel tells Frank and Andre he needs a female alter ego, they conjure up dancing celebrities ranging from Donna Summer to Eleanor Roosevelt and Janet Reno before he can explain what he has in mind.

All of this is fun when it works, as it often does. There are many amusing moments, and the dance numbers are spirited thanks to Lorin Latarro’s choreography and Wayne Kirkpatrick and Kary Kirkpatrick’s tunes.

It’s just that the show would be more satisfying if it provided more feels.

Giselle Gutierrez as Lydia, Daniel and Miranda’s older daughter

One emotional high point comes midway through Act 1 with “What the Hell,” a heartfelt song that expresses how Daniel and Miranda’s divorce is affecting their children. Teenage daughter Lydia (a wonderful Giselle Gutierrez) is angry, while younger siblings Chris and Natalie feel they are somehow to blame for the breakup. (Chris is played at alternate performances by Cody Braverman and Axel Bernard Rimmele, Natalie by Emerson Mae Chan and Kennedy Pitney.)

By the end, the musical does manage to supply another heartwarming moment or two. Otherwise, the focus is on laughs, leaps and Rob McClure’s amazing capacity for comedic schtick.

Broadway in Columbus will present Mrs. Doubtfire through Nov. 5 at the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St., Columbus. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes (including intermission). For tickets or more information, visit columbus.broadway.com. For information on future tour stops, visit mrsdoubtfirebroadway.com/tour.

Flash- and joke-filled ‘Aladdin’ sweeps romance under the carpet

By Richard Ades

Great songs, fine singing and dancing, nifty special effects, beautiful scenery: What else could you ask from a Broadway musical?

Well, other than a story you actually care about. Aladdin falls short in that respect, especially compared to other Disney musicals like The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast. But for most folks who caught the touring show Thursday at the Ohio Theatre, the production’s other attributes were more than enough.

Based on the 1992 animated film and boasting catchy Alan Menken tunes such as “Friend Like Me” and “Whole New World,” Aladdin arrived on Broadway in 2014. There it was nominated for five Tony Awards but won only for James Monroe Iglehart’s performance in the showiest role, the Genie.

In the touring production, much of the attention also is grabbed by the Genie portrayer, Michael James Scott, who leaves no stone unturned in his quest for laughter and applause. Equally committed, if less showy, performances are turned in by other cast members.

Clinton Greenspan leaps agilely and sings sweetly as poverty-stricken thief Aladdin, while Lissa DeGuzman gives Princess Jasmine a feisty, no-nonsense personality. (Is it just me, or does she remind you of SNL’s Melissa Villasenor?) As her father’s scheming adviser, Jafar, and his henchman, Iago, Jonathan Weir and Jay Paranada excel in comic villainy.

The cast plies its trade against a backdrop that is often eye-poppingly gorgeous thanks to Bob Crowley’s scenery and Natasha Katz’s lighting. Particularly spectacular is the gold- and jewel-encrusted cave where an important plot development takes place.

Speaking of the plot, it all stems from Jasmine’s refusal to accept a marriage proposal from a suitably royal suitor despite pressure from her aging father, the Sultan (Jerald Vincent). Jafar hopes to take advantage of her reluctance and the Sultan’s resulting lack of a successor by usurping the throne himself. But his plans go astray when he accidentally connects Aladdin with the Genie, who can grant the young thief anything he desires. And what he desires most is the beautiful Jasmine.

Though other Disney fairy tales have succeeded in keeping the youngest viewers enthralled while offering enough emotional depth to satisfy their parents and older siblings, Aladdin remains stubbornly shallow. We’re supposed to care whether Jasmine ends up with the title character, but we don’t, maybe because we’re given no reason to think love won’t win out. She’s such a strong-willed individual, and the Sultan such a doting father, that we don’t seriously believe she’ll be forced to marry someone she doesn’t want.

As if to make up for the tale’s emotional flatness, director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw fills the production with colorful song-and-dance numbers marked by acrobatic moves with a vaguely Arabic flavor. On top of that, he and his cast tell the story in a relentlessly jokey manner that combines comic stereotypes with winking nods to popular culture and even to other Disney musicals. The approach reaches its zenith when the Genie and multiple dancers perform “Friend Like Me,” a huge Act 1 production number that, following a recent musical trend, is actually a parody of classic Broadway production numbers.

Needless to say, all the jokes, cultural references and parodies make it even harder to take Aladdin and Jasmine’s tale seriously. The only time the show allows us to care about their incipient romance is during the Act 2 number “A Whole New World,” which sends the pair on a breathtaking magic-carpet ride among the stars. It’s a heartfelt, if short-lived, moment.

Say this for the touring show: It spares no effort or expense in its attempt to impress and entertain. If you can get past its emotional stinginess, you’ll likely feel it succeeds.

Broadway in Columbus and CAPA will present Aladdin through Nov. 4 at the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St., Columbus. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes (including intermission). Tickets are $34 to $99-plus. Contacts: 614-469-0939 (CAPA), 1-800-745-3000 (Ticketmaster), columbus.broadway.com or capa.com.