Photos provided by Matthew Murphy

No city is more appropriate to see the inaugural tour of “Some Like It Hot” than Chicago, especially considering the show starts smack dab in the center of a a speakeasy, circa the 1930s towards the tail end of Prohibition, when a duo of performers witness a mob murder and are forced to flee across the country.

Based off the 1959 movie starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, this inaugural Broadway adaptation seems tailor made for the stage, and thanks to the updated touches of book writers Matthew López and Amber Ruffin, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, plus direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw, it took home a ton of Tony Awards.

The Cadillac Palace Theatre is the only place to join the cross-country chase through Sunday, November 3, and thanks to some clever cross-dressing, it allows the leading fellas to not only stay alive, but also stay afloat artistically in an entirely female band on its way to California.

Major props go to Matt Loehr and Tavis Kordell, who juggle the respective roles of Joe/Josephine and Jerry/Daphne with the utmost ease and confidence, though those they meet along the way, such as Leandra Ellis-Gaston as Sugar, Edward Juvier as Osgood, Tarra Conner Jones as Sweet Sue, Jamie LaVerdiere as Mulligan, Devon Goffman as Spats, and original company member Devon Hadsell are just as excellent and integral to the entertainment/escape plan.

In fact, folks seem to fall in love as fast as they’re traveling to the next town, but given the fact that no one can be completely honest with one another under the extremely unusual circumstances, there’s a lot to sort out amidst all the humorous action, including aspects of racial injustice and gender identity.

To help propel the romance and racing, the Grammy Award winning soundtrack is a jazzy, swinging, big band blast, while the dance (and door closing) routines are regularly dazzling as they recall the golden age of showbiz.

It’s upbeat enough to drown out even the most outrageous deceptions, which assuming the primary pair can stay alive long enough, could have either the happiest ending or turn into a total train wreck, though luckily, it all comes clanging to a perfectly imperfect conclusion.

There’s a reason why “Some Like It Hot” has burned brightly for roughly a century, and as far as opening night was concerned, it was a non-stop sizzle fest in pursuit of everyone’s truest selves that was compelling enough for theatergoers to cast aside their surrounding cares and simply say “Let’s Dance The World Away.” 

“Some Like It Hot” continues at the Cadillac Palace Theatre through Sunday, November 3. For additional details, visit SomeLikeItHotMusical.com and BroadwayInChicago.com.

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