Chicago will get first look at new ‘Some Like It Hot’ musical

A new attempt to transplant the film classic “Some Like It Hot” to the stage will premiere in Chicago next year on its way to a likely Broadway run, producers said Monday.

An all-star team is assembling the musical, based on the 1959 Billy Wilder movie starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as Chicago musicians who dress like women to escape murderous gangsters. It’s a fixture on lists of the funniest films ever made.

The book is by Matthew Lopez, best known for his LGBT-themed play “The Inheritance,” with songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray”). Casey Nicholaw, a Tony winner for “The Book of Mormon,” will direct and choreograph.

The Chicago run will be from March 2 to April 4, 2021, at the Cadillac Palace Theater. No casting has been announced, and tickets are not yet on sale.

It won’t be the first time the fast-paced Hollywood farce takes to the stage. An earlier musical, called “Sugar,” ran on Broadway in 1972-73 with stars Robert Morse and Tony Roberts. That show later was revamped into “Some Like It Hot: The Musical,” which toured the U.S. and played the Rosemont Theatre outside Chicago in 2003, with Curtis starring in a different role.