It all started in 1935, when
Richard Pottier made the French film
Fanfare D'Amour. It has a strickingly similar story, two out of work musicians can't get work because of the popularity of all girl bands. What is there to do, but pretend to be women. A gimmick? Maybe! But it's been a popular one ever since.
Repeated in the 1951 German film
Fanfare Der Liebe, the same idea would continue to include out of work musicians dressing as women and falling in love with their fellow band mates. Another plot device, a man falling in love with one of the lads in drag, was also introduced in these original films.
It wasn't until 1959, that
Billy Wilder would introduce the "on the lam" element with the men disguising themselves in drag, not for work, but to escape the mob. It also introduced the central female protaganist Sugar Kane, famously portrayed by
Marilyn Monroe.
Some years later the "Abominable Showman,"
David Merrick, would decide to musicalize
Some Like it Hot. The only problem? Billy Wilder and
I.A.L. Diamond weren't interested. Merrick went back to the German film
Fanfare Der Liebe, along with his
Hello Dolly creative team,
Jerry Herman,
Michael Stewart, and
Gower Champion.
When Merrick was finally able to secure the rights to Wilder's film, Herman & Stewart were more interested in continuing their own version based on
Liebe. Merrick turned to
Jule Styne,
Bob Merrill and
Peter Stone to reintroduce the
Some Like it Hot elements. As familiar as the name of the movie was, they also decided to change the title (alternatively "Doin' it for Sugar" and finally just "Sugar") to entice
Ann-Margret into starring. She declined, but the name stayed.
And there it would stay until 1993 when
Tommy Steele brought it to London for the first time, with
Some Like it Hot back in the title.
That wouldn't be the end of
Fanfare, or
Some Like it Hot. In 2004,
Nia Vardalos (famous for
My Big Fat Greek Wedding) wanted to put her own spin on the tail with
Connie and Carla. The mobsters stayed, the
men in drag went. This time it was two ladies (Vardalos and Tony and Academy Award nominee
Toni Collette) escape from the mob by pretending to be men.. pretending to be women.
Forty years after Sugar first appeared on Broadway, 42nd Street Moon has brought her back to San Francisco. Regardless of the name, the show is still sweet as
Sugar.
Now playing through April 22, 2012 at the Eureka Theatre, for tickets call (415) 255-8207 or
click here.
