Olney Theatre Center inaugurates its spectacular, newly renovated Bernard Family Theatre with a big, brassy production of Some Like It Hot, the 2022 Tony Award-winning adaptation of the great 1959 Billy Wilder movie. Olney’s cast and creative team pull out all the stops for a high-energy evening of song and dance, with an overtone of sweetness.  The musical — Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin (book), Mark Shaiman (music and lyrics), and Scott Wittman (lyrics) — generally follows the movie’s plot, with some important changes. Most of the first act concerns exposition and character introductions. After witnessing a gangland shooting, Joe (Jacob Tischler) and Jerry (Tavis Kordell) escape from mob boss Spats Columbo (Greg Twomey) by dressing as women — Josephine and Daphne, respectively — and joining an all-girl band led by Sweet Sue (Ashleigh King). King has a vibrant belt that takes over the stage any time she sings. Ashleigh King as Sweet Sue and the ensemble of ‘Some Like It Hot’ at Olney Theatre Center. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography. In this version of the story, Joe and Jerry have been bonded as de facto brothers since childhood (“You Can’t Have Me [If You Don’t Have Him]”). Not simply band musicians, they are a tap duo, and their dancing and singing sparkle, as in their number “Vamp!” Thereupon follows a series of song-and-dance numbers featuring Sweet Sue, Josephine, Daphne, and the ensemble, each seemingly more kinetic than the last. It’s a delightful whirlwind to behold. Amid it all, vocalist Sugar Kane (Montria Walker) appears, late as usual. Her vocal material is more introspective, and Walker sings it beautifully. “A Darker Shade of Blue” recounts, in torch-song mode, her history of falling in love too readily with unreliable men, especially sax players. Now she wants to go to Hollywood and make it in the movies. “At the Old Majestic Nickel Matinee” tells — in a way reminiscent of “Everything Was Beautiful at the Ballet” from A Chorus Line — how, as a Black girl in small-town Jim Crow Georgia, she could dream of a better life by looking at the silver screen. The band, having traveled from Chicago to San Diego, meets an eccentric, lovelorn millionaire, Osgood (Edward Juvier), whose song-and-dance number, “Poor Little Millionaire,” is downright silly, in a good way.  All this is prologue to the show’s high point: the title number, “Some Like It Hot,” in which Sweet Sue, Daphne, and Sugar lead the ensemble in a rousing first-act finale. Costume designer Frank Labovitz has dressed the characters in a restrained, not particularly striking, manner through much of the first act — Sugar’s rather plain early scene costumes are an example — but the costuming in this number bursts forth in glimmering brightness, the actors puttin’ on the glitz. The multicolored women’s costumes only got more showy as the second act proceeded.  TOP LEFT: Jacob Tischler and Tavis Kordell star as Joe and Jerry, two musicians who go on the run from the mob, disguised as Josephine and Daphne; TOP RIGHT: Jacob Tischler as Joe/Josephine, Montria Walker as Sugar Kane, and Tavis Kordell as Jerry/Daphne; ABOVE: Tavis Kordell as Jerry/Daphne, Edward Juvier as Osgood, and the ensemble, in Some Like It Hot’ at Olney Theatre Center. Photos by Teresa Castracane Photography. Much of the show’s character development is packed into the second act. Osgood and Daphne discover their mutual attraction in “Let’s Be Bad,” a kind of “Let’s Misbehave”-like ensemble number featuring Daphne in a killer red dress, and in “Fly Mariposa, Fly,” in which the smitten Osgood likens Daphne to a butterfly who needs to fly on her own wings. “You Coulda Knocked Me Over With a Feather,” Daphne sings, as she realizes that her feelings about herself, as well as about Osgood, have led her in a direction she did not anticipate, in which she embraces being both Jerry and Daphne. She chooses an “and” rather than an “or.”  Meanwhile, Joe (this time impersonating Kip, a German-accented screenwriter — a nod to Billy Wilder, perhaps?) woos Sugar in “Let’s Dance the World Away,” the kind of romantic dance duet familiar from Fred Astaire movies. But Joe faces a reckoning when he has to come clean with Sugar about who he really is and the lies he has told. In a power ballad, “Ride Out the Storm,” Sugar wills herself to go on with the show despite her anger and disappointment. The gangsters and cops show up, leading to an extended, wild, danced, tapped, farce-style chase scene, after which happiness prevails. The final scene turns the ending of the movie on its head, as “Nobody’s perfect” shifts from a famous laugh line to a sweet moment of acceptance. Unlike the uncomprehending Osgood in the film, the musical’s Osgood sees and loves the reality of who he wants to marry. As Kam Henderson says in a dramaturgy note in the program, “What once was a punchline becomes a vehicle for investigating non-binary identity and queer freedom.”  Shaiman’s music, rendered with verve by music director Christopher Youstra’s 10-piece band, evokes the 1920s-30s style of music one might hear on WAMU’s “Hot Jazz Saturday Night.” By turns swingy, brash, and tender, it sets the mood while keeping the action of the show moving. Speaking of movement, Karla Puno Garcia’s choreography — executed with speed and precision and unstinting energy by the entire cast — is the star of the show. Jason Loewith’s direction maintains just the right pace, typically fast and at times frenetic (like that chase scene), while slowing just enough to capture the quieter moments that allow the audience to take in what’s happening with the characters. Appropriate to the grand opening of a new theater space, the physical production was bright and beautiful. Using the new theater’s array of LED panels to good advantage, the Alaska House Design’s projections behind the set created scenes of Art Deco-style decorations, trains, a boat on moonlit waters, etc. Ryan Douglass designed a thrust stage, which the theater surrounded with table seating representing a club setting, used by both patrons and actors. The center of the upstage playing area was centered around a false proscenium covered with a shiny rain curtain.  “Nobody’s perfect” may be the byword of this story, but Olney’s production comes as close to perfection as one could ask for an opening night in a renewed theater space. Running Time: Two hours and 35 minutes, including one intermission. Some Like It Hot plays through November 8, 2026, in the Bernard Family Theatre at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD. Tickets ($64–$124) are available online, by calling the box office at 301-924-3400, or at TodayTix. Buy Tickets Discount Tickets The cast and creative team credits are here. Some Like It HotMusic by Marc ShaimanLyrics by Marc Shaiman Scott WittmanBook by Matthew Lopez Amber RuffinBased on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Motion Picture Some Like It HotDirected by Jason LoewithChoreographed by Karla Puno GarciaMusic Directed by Christopher Youstra SEE ALSO: Olney Theatre Center announces casting for ‘Some Like It Hot’ (news story, August 26, 2026) ...read more read less