Some Like It Hot

A-

How brave the creative team of this musical adaptation of the classic Billy Wilder film were to tinker with a movie that enjoys cult status, especially since it had already been adapted as Sugar, a musical that ran on Broadway for over a year 50 years ago. Luckily for us, Mark Shaiman (music and lyrics; Hairspray), Scott Whitman (lyrics; Hairspray), Matthew Lopez (book; The Inheritance, Amber Ruffin (book), Casey Nicholaw (director/choreographer; The Prom), Scott Pask (scenic design; The Book of Mormon)) and Gregg Barnes (costume design; Mean Girls) have assembled a show that is not only relentlessly entertaining but adds a few interesting new twists to the story. The casting is superb: the ever enjoyable Christian Borle (Something Rotten!) hits all the right notes as Joe; J. Harrison Ghee (Mrs. Doubtfire) perfectly captures the duality of Jerry/Daphne; Adrianna Hicks (Six) makes the most of the less-developed role of Sugar; Kevin Del Aguila (Frozen) is hilarious in the expanded role of Osgood, and Natasha Yvette Williams (Tina) is a force of nature as Sweet Sue. The music is catchy, the choreography which includes lots of tap dancing is terrific, the deco sets are wonderful and the period costumes are splendid. By portraying Sweet Sue, Jerry/Daphne and Sugar as black, the authors have added a new dimension to the plot. By giving Osgood a back story, they strengthen the theme of identity fluidity personified by Jerry/Daphne. By not slavishly following the details of the film, they have created something that both honors the original and opens new doors. The result is a sure crowd-pleaser that should have a very long run. My only complaint is that the sound level at times became uncomfortably loud. Running time: two hours 35 minutes including intermission. 

Chicken & Biscuits

Waitress

C+

It took me 2 1/2 years, but I finally got around to seeing this slick musical adaptation of Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film, with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson. With one exception, the entire cast has changed since the show opened. My reason for seeing it now was to catch the Broadway debut of the delightful Nicolette Robinson (Invisible Thread, Brooklynite) as Jenna. The roles of Jenna’s sidekicks have been recast well with NaTasha Yvette Williams (Chicago) as the brash Becky and Lenne Klingman as the shy Dawn. Benny Elledge is their boss Cal, Ben Thompson (Matilda) is Jenna’s abusive husband Earl and Al Roker (yes, that one) is the owner of Joe’s Pie Diner. Alex Wyse (Spring Awakening) is a scene stealer as Ogie, Dawn’s persistent suitor. Drew Gehling (Jersey Boys), the sole holdover from the original cast, is both goofy and ardent as Dr. Pomatter. The book offers no surprises other than its casual acceptance of adultery. The running pie-baking motif becomes tiresome quickly. The music is pleasant, but it is often difficult to make out the lyrics because the voices are harshly overamplified. The musicians, although only six in number, sound so loud that they occasionally threaten to drown out the singers. With today’s advanced technologies, these problems should not be hard to solve. The scenic design by Scott Pask (The Book of Mormon) is both attractive and flexible and the costumes by Suttirat Anne Larlarb (Of Mice and Men) are appropriate. Diane Paulus’s (Pippin) direction is relatively restrained. The show is only moderately entertaining, but apparently that’s enough to have kept it running this long. Running time: two hours 35 minutes, including intermission.

Bella: An American Tall Tale

C+

What are the odds that two shows about 19th-century black women with large derrieres would arrive on Theatre Row within a month of each other? And yet the revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Venus at Signature Theatre has just been followed by the New York premiere of Kirsten Childs’s musical at Playwrights Horizons. I skipped Venus, because the prospect of watching an innocent woman being exploited and forced to appear in a freak show sounded too depressing. Although Childs’s work also includes a segment when the title character becomes a circus attraction, the prevailing spirit is far from depressing. Bella (Ashley D. Kelley) is a naive girl from Tupelo, Mississippi with a rich fantasy life who is forced to leave town after injuring a rich white man who was trying to rape her. She heads by train toward New Mexico, where her boyfriend Aloysius (Britton Smith) is a Buffalo Soldier. On the train she is looked after by a protective porter (Brandon Gill). After a fanciful adventure I will not describe, she ends up as a circus attraction who becomes a big star in Europe but, a la Josephine Baker, was scorned when she returned to America. There are many other characters: Ida Lou (Marinda Anderson, a black widow heading to Kansas where she thinks life will be safer; Miss Cabbagestalk (Kenita R. Miller), an old maid on her way to likely servitude as the mail-order bride of a widower with six children; a kindly couple, an inept gang of robbers, Bella’s mother (Miller again) and Aunt Dinah (Anderson again) and the grandmother (Natasha Yvette Williams) who is succumbing to dementia. Finally, there is the Spirit of the Booty (Williams again), whom you must see to believe. The cast of twelve are all talented, with Kelley and Miller the standouts. The production is lavish: Clint Ramos’s set has a Western-themed proscenium with a red velvet curtain. a painted scrim, a stage within a stage that moves back and forth and a revolving platform. [Was there a sale on stage turntables this spring? This is the fifth play I have seen recently with a revolving stage.] Dede M. Ayite’s costumes are inspired. Camille A. Brown’s lively choreography adds a lot to the production. Robert O'Hara (Bootycandy) directed. Childs’s music mixes many styles and occasionally seems derivative: there is a song near the end that sounds very similar to the disco anthem “I Will Survive.” A hilarious number in the second act called “White People Tonight” got a big reaction. It all goes down easy, but seems muddled and overstuffed. It has already shed 20 minutes in previews but could profitably lose a few more, preferably in the first act. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including intermission.