Le monde des musicals

From the hilarious screen success "Some Like It Hot" SUGAR comes to the stage with the same memorable characters that made the screenplay so popular. Joe and Jerry, two musicians down on their luck while wandering through Chicago, by chance witness a gang rub-out in the Clark Street Garage. The rub-out was ordered by Spats Palazzo, a notorious Chicago hood. Spats and his boys immediately chase after Joe and Jerry, determined to silence them as witnesses to the crime. Desperate for a quick way out of town, Joe and Jerry hear about jobs available for a saxophone and a bass player, which are their specialties. And coincidently, the band is scheduled to leave at once for Florida. There is only one problem; the band is all female. As Joe and Jerry they haven't got a chance, but with a bit of costuming, padding, makeup and slight voice adjustments, they become Josephine and Daphne. They are hired by "Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators."

Joe (Josephine) and Jerry (Daphne) find themselves getting well acquainted with Sugar, the gorgeous blonde who is the featured singer with the band. As difficult as it is for them not to reveal their secret to Sugar, they know that one slip could lead Spats Palazzo to them. Moreover, if Mr. Bienstock the show's manager, discovers their true identities, they could be in an even worse spot. Mr. Bienstock had already warned the "girls" that he would not tolerate drinking or men on the train between shows. Joe and Jerry are definitely in a jam, but it looks as though Sugar's company is going to make it an enjoyable, if risky, experience.

It turns out that Sugar has a drinking problem which she keeps secret from Mr. Bienstock. As she explains it, she drinks to forget about the countless saxophone players she has fallen in love with, and who have left her. This is quite interesting to Josephine, whose interest in Sugar is becoming more than sisterly.

Sugar confides to Josephine and Daphne that she plans to find a millionaire in Florida and get married. She even tells them what he will look like. Hearing this, Joe develops a plan; he convinces Jerry that they need to look after Sugar, so they need to stay with the band in Florida until they find a suitable millionaire for her. What Jerry does not know is that Joe has already chosen Sugar's match. By disguising himself as her "dream-man," Joe is confident that he can win her heart. After she falls in love with him, he plans to tell her the truth about himself.

While Joe is busy impressing Sugar with his newfound wealth, Jerry (alias Daphne) has attraced her own millionaire. Sir Osgood Fielding is determined to woo and win Daphne. She is not quite certain how to break the bad news to him, especially since he showers her with lavish gifts.

With the unwitting help of Sir Osgood, Joe makes a big impression on Sugar. Now Joe only needs to tell her the truth about his identity, since he thinks that if she really loves him it won't matter that he is not a millionaire, but another saxophone player. Unfortunately, before he gets the opportunity to tell her, Spats Palazzo and his gang arrive in town and recognize Josephine and Daphne in the band. The chase is on. Eventually the villains get what they deserve, and the lovers are reunited.

Based on the screenplay by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, the original musical version was entitled “Sugar”. In spite of a number of pre-production problems, the show managed to run for 505 performances in New York. This London version originated at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley and was heavily revised, with the emphasis switched from the character of Sugar to the show’s star and director, Tommy Steele. It was also given a new title – the same as the famous film. It was damned by the critics – inevitably known as “Some Like it Luke Warm”. Tommy Steele was forced to withdraw from the cast following an accident, and as a result, the show soon closed, apparently having lost over £2 million.

Act I
When You Meet a Man in Chicago - Sweet Sue and All Girl Band
Penniless Bums - Jerry, Joe and Unemployed Musicians
Tear the Town Apart - Spats's Gang
The Beauty That Drives Men Mad - Jerry and Joe
We Could Be Close - Jerry and Sugar Kane
Sun on My Face - Jerry, Joe, Sugar Kane, Sweet Sue, Bienstock and Ensemble
November Song - Millionaires and Osgood Fielding, Jr.
Sugar - Jerry and Joe

Act II
Hey, Why Not! - Sugar Kane and Ensemble
Beautiful Through and Through - Osgood Fielding, Jr. and Jerry
What Do You Give to a Man Who's Had Everything? - Joe and Sugar Kane
Magic Nights - Jerry
It's Always Love - Joe
When You Meet a Man in Chicago Reprise - Jerry, Joe, Sugar Kane, Sweet Sue, All Girl Band and Chorus Line

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Sugar (ou) Some like it hot

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Sugar (ou) Some like it hot

In his review of the Broadway production, Time theatre critic T.E. Kalem thought the musical "has been so thoroughly processed, refined and filtered that it has lost the natural energy that makes a good musical strong and healthy." He added, "If hummable songs are a plus, Jule Styne's songs are hummable, though you may not know quite which homogenized number you are humming. As for Bob Merrill's lyrics, they are the labored products of a man hovering over a rhyming dictionary. Sugar is almost a textbook case of a musical born after its time. It may well enjoy great wads of audience favor. But in the past three years, Company and Follies have altered the critical perspective by providing a musical form that is spare, intelligent, ironic, mature and capable of sustaining three-dimensional characters." He concluded, "This is not to say that the big, old-fashioned musical is irrevocably doomed, but it must have a singular mood, manner and meaning all its own. Otherwise, all that remains, as Sugar indicates, is a sterile display of high-gloss techniques.

Dyan McBride, director of a 2012 San Francisco production of the musical, noted in an interview that "Written in 1972, Sugar really has one of the last Golden Age of Broadway scores.... You can feel contemporary Broadway starting to come.... This is not a rock 'n' roll score; this is really a jazzy score. But you can start to hear things changing; there's a little bit of lounge, and you can hear some Bob Goulet."