Marc Shaiman described his new show, âSome Like It Hot,â to Page Six as âa big fâking great musical comedy.â
âMy Judaism overrides any ability to enjoy,â the âHairsprayâ composer told us Friday night at a star-studded cocktail party celebrating the show, which is based on the 1959 Marilyn Monroe movie of the same name.
âAlthough I shouldnât make jokes anymore in this anti-Semitic world but Iâm always just waiting for the other shoe to drop.â
Despite his tempered enthusiasm, the Tony winner, 63, went on to explain that the musical comedy â co-written with longtime collaborator Scott Wittman â is âvery contemporary in our themes.â
Shaiman said that the show has made many adjustments to the screenplay, which also starred Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, in order to deepen the characters.
“The changes we’ve had to make (to the musical now) have been in the wonderful position of, ‘How can we shine this up?’” he explained.
âBut itâs never like, âWhat the fâk are we going to do now?â So I have slept, but everything I say, I feel like Iâm cursing it.â
Like the film, the musical follows the story of jazz-age musicians struggling during Prohibition â but now features black actors and updates the theme of gender.
The show also deals with the movieâs immortal last line â ânobodyâs perfectâ â in âa very wonderful way,â Shaiman teased.
Shaiman, who recently scored the Billy Eichner rom-com, “Bros,” also wowed the crowd at the star-studded party with a performance of the show’s title number.
âSome Like It Hotâ is currently in previews and opens Dec. 11.
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