—and Amber Ruffin and Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and Shaiman unpeel Jerry/Daphne’s story to show a character who, through first dressing up in women’s clothes in need, finds something radically, personally liberating in their new identity.
Ghee is so excellent, though the wackily comic and tender chemistry and togetherness that crackled between Tony Curtis’ Joe/Josephine and Jack Lemmon’s Jerry/Daphne in the movie is sadly sidelined in this show. It’s there at the beginning in a spiffing number, “You Can’t Have Me ,” but goes somewhat MIA as the musical continues.
Williams also provides theater-filling musical power in numbers like the opening “What Are You Thirsty For?” and, in certain moments, highlights the racism of the time. Angie Schworer as Minnie, a character written into the show as a daffy assistant for Sue, wittily scoops laughs out of every line she has.’s, but rather question the rendering of her character. From the outset, Sugar knows everything, she wisecracks and whipcracks, she is nobody’s fool.
Similarly, when Joe asks Jerry/Daphne what to call her, the reply comes that the most important thing is that it is said with love and respect. This too got a deserved round of applause. This critic was both happy to see the visibly careful crafting around Jerry/Daphne, yet wished there was more of their story in the show, and more of the spirit of witty radicalism embedded in the original film, especially its ending.
Sounds like every character gets a 2022 sensitivity update... except they made sure all the mobsters were still Italian-American. Progress!