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Ca'Sugar' Hope ManyLikeon StageBy RICHARD L. COEThe Washington PostjVTEW YORK — Can Some Like It Hot” — the movie ^ that for many remains one of the funniest ever—be transformed into a smashing, long-run stage musical?Producer David Merrick is gambling $750,000 on the venture, and Sugar,” as it now is called, will come to the Kennedy Center Opera House for its world premiere on Jan. 17. Taking over the roles that Marilyn Monroe,Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and ____________—_____--Joe E. Brown created for the memorable 1959 movie will be Elaine Joyce, Robert Morse,Tony Roberts, and Cyril Ritch-ard.Recently, in one of those re* spectably dingy, sweatily non-glamorous rehearsal hails of upper Broadway, craftsmen, cast and crew had their first get-together for a venture that could turn out to be as trium-phant as “Hello, Dolly!” or as disastrous as ’‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”At the helm is Gower Champion, whose “Dolly staging was part of a string of triumphs in a career that began when he was a teenaged dancing headliner.Champion has talked of “Some Like It Hot” as a stage possibility for years. He worked with other adapters on it, never was satisfied with the “treatment” until 10 weeks ago when finally he prevailed on an old acquaintance to pick up the challenge.The book, from the screenplay that Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond in turn adapted from a German farce by R. Thoeren and M. Logan, is by Peter Stone.In tweed jacket and slacks,Stone looks like a football fullback who’s kept his trim. He’s a 40-year-old Californian whose father was a screen writer and director. After training at the Yale School of Drama, Stone earned his apprenticeship in French TV, and finally switched to Hollywood movies, such as “Charade,” “Mirage” and “Arabesque.” His first Broadway success was for the book of Sherman Edwards’ “1776” and one reason he’s accepted Champion’s challenge to “do something about ‘Some Like It Hot’ ” is that “Sugar” is scheduled to follow “1776” in 44th Street’s Majestic Theater.4 “I. want my royalties to con* tinufe,” he notes. Shifting a memorable movie into stage musicaj terms “means that we cannot disappoint by not delivering remembered scenes. Here there are a lot of them: the St.Valentine’s Day massacre scene; the daydreaming Joe and Sugar did at the beach; the episodes of Jerry and Joe on the train; the all-girl band; the adoration Osgood, the Joe E.Brown character, had for Joe-as-a-girl; even his famous last line, which I won’t repeat.Jule Styne is at the little piano, shyly avoiding his own music.This slight fellow — also in tweeds — is one of the most overlooked but successful composers of Broadway scores.“Sugar” will be his 25th Broadway show and before it have come such hits as “High Button Shoes,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Gypsy,” “Funny Girl” and “Hallelujah. Baby!”“Three Coins in the Fountain” won him a Hollywood Oscar.The bounu, mimeographed scripts (left-hand pages blankfor director’s notes) do give an idea of what to expect: “The Girls in the Band,” — led by ‘‘Marne’s’’ Sheila Smith — which introduces the heroine; “Penniless Bums,” presentingthe two heroes; “The Beauty That Drives Men Mad,” wherein the boys get into female garb to escape the Chicago gangsters; “Beautiful Through and Through,” describing lovestruck Osgood’s passion for the girl who is really a boy, and a sinister number for “Spat-s-s-s Palazzo,” the George Raft character, which Raft has decided not to repeat.The song lyrics are by Bob Merrill, red-haired, spectacled and almost freed from the confusions of having the same name as the Metropolitan Opera baritone. He’s both a composer and lyricist. “If I Knew You Were Cornin’, I’d *Ave Baked a Cake,” “Doggie in the Window” and “Honeycomb” got him started. “New Girl in Town,” “Carnival” and “Take Me Along” were his words and music successes.Around Styne’s piano for the first traditional picture taking gather the creators and the leads. All eyes focus on Elaine Joyce, the single unknown quality in the lineup.Miss Joyce is blonde and pert, chosen to avoid any comparisons with the incomparable Monroe, whose Sugar is recognized as her most winning screen role. If you’ve neverheard of Elaine Joyce, this doesn’t mean she’s inexperienced. She’s done all the recent musical show leads everywhere but in New York, she’s the wife of “No, No, Nanette” star Bobby Van and she’s got a little nose that will be a caricaturist’s delight.The lads for the Lemmon-Cur-tis parts are Robert Morse, of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” and Tony Roberts, who left the Washington leading-man role of “Take Her, She’s Mine” to go into the Army and came out of that to star affably in “Play It Again, Sam.”Cyril Ritehard, cool from a run-through scene as Osgood across the hall, takes his place at the piano. His fabulous career stretches back to his native Australia and London of the ’20s and he’s been through this “first rehearsal” scene hundreds of times.PEANUTSTOMORROWS THE0EA0UNE ON THE DREfc' CODE THINS, j FRANKLIN..14 Pacific Stars StripesSaturday, Jan. 8, 1972
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Pacific Stars and Stripes
Tokyo, Tôkyô, JP
Sat, Jan 08, 1972
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