Some Like It Hot - 21 May 2023

As a transgender person, I had mixed feelings going into Some Like It Hot, because I knew I was going to be confronted with the use of gender stereotypes for a laugh. Depending on context, this can be funny. But sometimes it feels reductive, and I walk out feeling less than enthused—especially when it’s a contemporary show and not a golden age revival. I have to say, Some Like It Hot walked the line with grace and dignity—just the right amount of what men think women are to be fun without crossing the border into insulting.

The part of the show that confused me the most was actually its choreography. In particular, I was struck by the choreographed escape scene towards the end with so many costume and door shifts that I couldn’t quite believe the actors were all so perfectly in sync in such a dazzling way. That being said, I did not understand why the band members were pretending to play instruments on stage. It’s theatre! I don’t play any wind or brass instruments, and I could tell right away that none of them were playing. This was a missed opportunity to let the actors dance with their instruments. It would have been so much more entrancing to look at if, when a saxophone starts playing, we see some emotion from the actor through dance and facial expressions, rather than very forced motions that limited actors’ movement during what could have been big dance numbers.

Regarding J. Harrison Ghee—I felt this victory. Daphne in Some Like It Hot was everything that Lola in Kinky Boots could have been. When I saw Kinky Boots, I was very dismayed by the finale: addressing the audience as “ladies, gentlemen, and those who have yet to make up their minds” was a complete erasure of nonbinary identities and, coupled with “just be who you want to be” heavily implied that gender identity is a choice in which what you want for yourself is the determining factor of who you are. Kinky Boots felt like it sent this powerful, empowering message, and then took it all back in its final moments.

Where Kinky Boots was about the performative nature of gender, Some Like It Hot was a victory for people wanting to be who they are every day. It was especially moving to see Daphne embrace the fluidity of gender and lean into who she is today not being who she is forever. In very few other aspects of life do we expect people to stay exactly the same their whole life long, to never grapple with what their identity means in different contexts.

Although some facets of the human experience like race and ethnicity can’t really be changed, people still experience a journey of what it means to be those things. Maybe they immigrate somewhere with different demographics. Maybe they visit their parents’ home country. Maybe they attend a school where they’re around more people with a common culture and interests. Even if you know what color skin you have, discovering what part of that experience resonates with you is still a journey and an experience.

For me, gender has always been an evolving experience that takes into account how I feel and how the world around me feels. Some Like It Hot was one of the first pieces of theatre I’ve seen where I felt seen. Daphne never had to tell the man who loved her what her genitals looked like. She didn’t have a definitive answer about her pronouns and identity in perpetuity. She was not just openly trans—she was openly learning and growing and living the trans experience. She was not always bold and confident. She was human: unsure at times, worried about the implications, steeped in self-sabotage, and overcome by fear of rejection. To me, those qualities have always overshadowed the mechanics that others get wrapped up in—what do you want your body to look like, what social roles are you talking about, how is society going to see you?

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather because I will forgive the flaws of Some Like It Hot as a theatrical experience to embrace the overwhelming authenticity. Fly, mariposa, fly!

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.