MARC SHAIMAN, Scott Wittman - Some Like It Hot (2023) [Hi-Res]

The first time I heard the song “What Are You Thirsty For?” I was in London, deep in the winter of 2018 and deep into rehearsals for the first production of my play, The Inheritance. I was in need of an uplift and this particular demo, as sung by Marc, delivered it. It was the perfect introduction to what would become Marc and Scott’s dynamic, exuberant, swoony score for Some Like it Hot. It is also the perfect opening to our show. From our earliest conversations, we knew we wanted to write a show about people in the process of becoming newer, better, truer versions of themselves. Our characters (and we did come to think of them as ours, and not merely characters on loan from Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond) were underdogs and misfits. Flawed but (mostly) well-intentioned, they are each thirsty for more opportunities, more respect, more money, more love. Joe and Jerry (eventually Daphne) dream of success as dancers; Sugar dreams of Hollywood stardom; Sue dreams of respect and achievement as a top-flight band leader. For Jerry, Sugar, and Sue especially, these dreams are tempered by the headwinds of racial injustice in 1930’s America. Joe’s ambitions are tempered by his own personal foibles as the abandoned child of a family of grifters. They all find themselves on a train bound for California, each with a dream of what awaits them, each ending up getting far more than they bargained for, and each better off for having taken the journey. Marc and Scott’s score developed from those foundational ideas. Like all great musical theatre scores, each song examines and deepens the themes of the show while also delivering jolts of energy, humor, romance and pathos. But no score is complete without the people who perform its songs and, over the course of the show’s development, we found what became the show’s killer nucleus of Christian Borle, J. Harrison Ghee, and Adrianna Hicks. Adding to that, we were blessed with the talents of NaTasha Yvette Williams and Kevin Del Aguila, who have taken the music and heated it to a boil. In this recording, you will also hear Charlie Rosen and Bryan Carter’s detailed and inventive orchestrations, under Darryl Archibald’s baton and Mary-Mitchell Campbell’s musical supervision. And of course you’ll hear Glen Kelly’s dance arrangements for Casey Nicholaw’s brilliant choreography, which, along with his joyous direction, has further catapulted Marc and Scott’s score into the stratosphere. Amber Ruffin, my co-writer on the show, joined the team a few years into the show’s development, and is perhaps the world’s foremost authority on Marc and Scott’s score. She’s been looking forward to the songs being shared with the world so she can start a support group for people who can’t get them out of their heads. I suspect it will have a robust membership over the years to come. —MATTHEW LÓPEZ

1.01 - NaTasha Yvette Williams - What Are You Thirsty For? (5:08)
1.02 - Christian Borle - You Can't Have Me (If You Don't Have Him) (4:07)
1.03 - Christian Borle - Vamp! (3:49)
1.04 - NaTasha Yvette Williams - I'm California Bound (4:32)
1.05 - Adrianna Hicks - A Darker Shade Of Blue (4:21)
1.06 - Adrianna Hicks - Take It Up A Step (2:50)
1.07 - J. Harrison Ghee - Zee Bap (2:53)
1.08 - Adrianna Hicks - At The Old Majestic Nickel Matinee (4:26)
1.09 - Kevin Del Aguila - Poor Little Millionaire (4:13)
1.10 - NaTasha Yvette Williams - Some Like It Hot (5:19)
1.11 - Kevin Del Aguila - Let's Be Bad (4:17)
1.12 - Adrianna Hicks - Dance The World Away (4:26)
1.13 - Kevin Del Aguila - Fly, Mariposa, Fly (3:19)
1.14 - J. Harrison Ghee - You Coulda Knocked Me Over With A Feather (3:53)
1.15 - Christian Borle - He Lied When He Said Hello (4:27)
1.16 - Adrianna Hicks - Ride Out The Storm (4:12)
1.17 - 'Some Like It Hot' Original Broadway Cast - Baby, Let's Get Good (3:46)