Somewhere in the Prohibition Era, musicians Jerry and Joe witness a murder by the mafia and go into hiding by disguising themselves as women and joining an all-female band. As they navigate their new identities, they both fall in love with the band’s lead singer, Sugar, while trying to avoid being caught by the mob. Audiences can witness this lively turn of events eight times a week at the Shubert Theater in the grandiose Some Like It Hot, which is currently nominated for 13 Tony Awards, the most that any show has received this season. Based on the classic 1959 Billy Wilder film starring Marilyn Monroe, the musical is a mix of slapstick comedy, mistaken identities, and romantic entanglements, set to a jazzy score featuring classic songs from the 1920s and 30s.
At the forefront of it, all is the incomparable J. Harrison Ghee, whose range has been proven unbeatable in their roles throughout the years. Starring as Lola in Kinky Boots, Andre Mayem in Mrs. Doubtfire, and now Jerry in Some Like It Hot, they bring such a sense of liveliness and joy to every role they play.
Ghee has earned a well-deserved Tony nomination for their vibrant portrayal of Jerry/Daphne. This year, Ghee and Shucked star Alex Newell made history as the first non-binary Tony Award Nominees. Though the categories remain gendered as male and female, Newell feels that this is a step in the right direction.
Though the show shares its name with the 1959 film that it’s based on, the two could not be more different. Jerry’s experiences as Daphne give him a newfound appreciation for the complexities of gender and sexuality. As he navigates his attraction to men while pretending to be a woman, he gains a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ people in a society that doesn’t fully understand or accept them yet. To Ghee, the way this resonates with audiences means the world.
“One of my favorite experiences so far has been our opening night,” Ghee said at Thursday’s Meet The Nominees Press day. “Our security stage hand, Leon, saw the show for the first time from the front row and was sitting next to a gentleman. And after I finished my song You Could Have Knocked Me Over With a Feather, he turned to the person next to him and was like, I need to treat my son better. That’s the only review I care about. Or having those moments at the stage door with a parent of a trans kid who’s like thank you for showing my child that their existence matters and is important. And there’s a part of them living on stage. And so it’s those kinds of moments that mean the world to me.”
2023 has seen the return of the grandiose style of Broadway that redefines what is possible within the walls of the theater, and Some Like It Hot is the perfect example of that. “People go to theater to escape to feel, to see a spectacle, and they want to see something beyond normalcy sometimes,” Ghee said. “And so we’re giving them that, but also in such a beautiful way with humanity and grounded in truth. That was Casey Nickolas’ intention, that the entire time of building the show that we did everything in this big comedy with authenticity and truth. It’s like, yes, we’re being farcical here and doing that thing there. But also remember that you’re a human being, so be grounded in the truth of the matter.”
Ghee cites their love of the stage door stories that a show like this unlocks, saying, “There’s so many trans, queer and non-binary people at the stage door who were like, I’ve been struggling, and now I have more language. And thank you for this visibility. Thank you for helping me in my journey. This is something I’ve been toying with quietly, but now I can talk about even cisgender people who are like, wow, this fluid journey you have on stage, and like baby boomers who like knew the movie when it came out, like, they are getting to see a new side of it.”
See all of the 2023 Tony Award Nominations here!
