Broadway In Tucson is bringing the Tony Award-winning musical comedy “Some Like It Hot” to Centennial Hall Feb. 18-23.
This is the first national tour for the 2022 Broadway musical, based on the 1959 Billy Wilder movie starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
It’s the story of musicians Joe and Jerry, who disguise themselves as women to join an all-female band to escape gangsters during Prohibition.
“He’s a grifter, he’s a bit shady, he doesn’t speak the truth for almost the entire time we see him,” revealed actor Matt Loehr, who plays the role of Joe.
Loehr actually plays three characters in the show — Joe, Josephine and Kip Von der Plotz. Joe is known to be a manipulative character who is unreliable to the audience and others in the show.
The characters explore identity changes and self-discovery, which is why Loehr is the face of three different characters. His characters are all the same person, just portraying different versions of himself.
The first national tour of the Broadway musical comedy “Some Like It Hot” comes to Centennial Hall Feb. 18-23.
Originally, the movie was considered taboo because of cross-dressing. But Loehr said the musical’s writers transformed it into a show about acceptance and representation.
“I mean, it is critical to do something like that if you’re going to bring known material to the stage,” Loehr said. “We’ve moved on to accepting people being their more authentic selves and who they are.”
Unlike the movie, the Broadway show features an interracial cast and doesn’t consider men in dresses to be the focus of the humor.
Joe, Loehr’s initial character, takes on the persona of Josephine to join the female band with his friend Jerry, who becomes Daphne. When Joe gets closer and falls in love with Sugar, another member of the band, he begins to respect women and starts to understand that they can be smart and have complex feelings.
Tavis Kordell, from left, plays Jerry, and Matt Loehr plays Joe in the first national tour of “Some Like It Hot.” It comes to Centennial Hall Feb. 18-23.
As the story progresses, the two men learn more about themselves and the people around them.
“I think he also understands that his real self lies in between these two characters,” Loehr said, describing Joe transforming into Josephine.
He said that playing two characters is exciting and that it’s satisfying to lean into both the feminine and masculine aspects of the character.
This is Loehr’s eighth touring show in his 27-year career that started with “A Chorus Line” when he was 19 years old.
“I love this kind of transient lifestyle,” said Loehr, whose father and stepmother will be in the Tucson audience; they recently relocated to Tucson. “Audiences are different everywhere you go and jokes and laughs land differently.”
“Some Like It Hot” is filled with jokes, jazz and, most importantly, self-love and acceptance.
“You’re going to get tap dancing, you’re going to get humor, you’re going to get beautiful costumes,” Loehr said. “And then you’re going to be shocked, like, ‘Wow, I feel something’ at the end of this.”
Performances at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. on the University of Arizona campus, will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $30-$140 through ticketmaster.com.
