Some Are Steady, ‘Some Like It Hot’

Considering what the Fullerton Civic Light Opera has to work with, it’s remarkable that “Some Like It Hot” turns out as entertaining as it does.

The musical, called “Sugar” when it premiered in 1972, is so-so at best: a pleasant score enough by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics), but nothing to put on a greatest show tunes CD. Peter Stone’s book adds nothing to the classic Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond screenplay on which it was based. In fact, signature lines from the 1959 movie are scattered about shamelessly.

Director Rob Barron is unfazed by all this. Instead of fretting over the musical’s familiarity--and predictability--he embraces it. Barron knows that anyone who comes to the Plummer Auditorium is probably more interested in big-screen nostalgia than fresh stage ideas. This production just wants to have a little fun, and for the most part it does.

The formula is simple: Let Joe (Randy Gianetti) and Jerry (Randy Rogel), musicians who dress in drag and join an all-women band after witnessing the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, exult in their newfound femininity. Sugar (Diane Vincent), the band’s bombshell singer, is there for sex appeal and tipsy vulnerability. Vincent, Gianetti and Rogel remind you of the film’s Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, but not too much.

Things pick up shortly after Joe and Jerry meet Spats (Lou Genevrino), a mob boss who likes tap-dancing almost as much as crime. Spats grumbles loudly, taps lightly (Genevrino is an energetic dancer) and carries a big gun. Joe and Jerry make their trembling escape with Spats close behind.

The next time we see them, they’re done up as Daphne and Josephine, singing “The Beauty That Drives Men Mad,” a campy tune about the joys of girlishness. They gamely try to balance on high heels and worry about tricky undergarments: silly gender-tweaking stuff that never fails to draw hoots from the audience.

Romance hits once Joe, Jerry and the band end up in a Miami Beach hotel populated by wealthy old men. Joe tries to woo Sugar while slipping in and out of drag, and Jerry/Daphne meets Sir Osgood Fielding Jr. (Joseph G. Medalis), a graying, oversexed tycoon. As in the movie, some of the goofiest moments come watching Jerry enjoy the attention he gets as the flirtatious Daphne.

The production finds other pluses with Barron’s often witty choreography. The tapping that accents “Tear the Town Apart” is jazzy; so are many of the ensemble routines in the second act.

The cartoonish sets (uncredited) are appealing, as are Sharell Martin’s lollipop-colored costumes. One of the show’s strongest technical features is Tom Ruzika’s lighting, which shifts from an almost harsh midday brightness to a warm sunset glow.

* “Some Like It Hot,” Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 Sunday; also 7 p.m. May 24. $14-$33. (714) 879-1732. Ends May 31. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.