The Love Story the 1959 Film Couldn't Tell: Some Like It Hot at Olney

Published September 29, 2026 · 3 min read

Broadway usually means a pilgrimage. You drive to New York, pay for parking that costs more than dinner, and sit so far back the actors look like ants.

Olney Theatre Center has a different idea. The first regional production of Some Like It Hot runs now through November 8, 2026, as the inaugural show in the company's radically renovated Bernard Family Theatre. Same Broadway-caliber spectacle. No I-95 required.

From Screen to Stage

The 1959 Billy Wilder film is a classic: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two Chicago musicians who witness a mob hit and flee disguised as women in an all-female band. Marilyn Monroe plays Sugar Kane. It won an Oscar and became one of the most beloved comedies in American film.

The stage version, which opened on Broadway in 2022, is not a nostalgic retread. The book is by Tony-winning playwright Matthew López and comedian Amber Ruffin. The music is by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman—the team behind Hairspray. It won four Tony Awards and was nominated for twelve.

What the stage version adds is depth. López and Ruffin update the story in ways the 1950s film could never make explicit. As Olney's Artistic Director Jason Loewith put it, the characters' journeys have been "significantly deepened." Through Osgood and Jerry/Daphne, the musical explores what it means to embrace a dual identity, to be nonbinary.

Loewith doesn't shy from the political weight of that choice. "At a moment when nonbinary people are characterized as an existential threat to our country," he says, "the love story between Osgood—who is neither Mexican nor American but both—and Jerry/Daphne gives us the opportunity to find empathy."

That's not a lecture. It's a love story. And it's funny.

Inside the Production

Loewith directs, with choreography by Karla Puno Garcia and music direction by Christopher Youstra. The cast includes Jacob Tischler as Joe/Josephine, Tavis Kordell as Jerry/Daphne, Edward Juvier as Osgood, and Montria Walker as Sugar Kane.

The Bernard Family Theatre has been transformed. Set designer Ryan Douglass built a thrust stage surrounded by 18 cabaret tables on either side—seating designed to evoke Prohibition-era speakeasies. A false proscenium covered in a shiny rain curtain anchors the upstage area. The space feels like a vaudeville house that decided to throw a party.

And the dance? This is a tap-heavy show, and the choreography is the engine. If you've seen Hairspray, you know the energy Shaiman and Wittman write toward. This is that, with more taps.

The Cabaret Experience

A limited number of seats are available at cabaret tables "inside" the club—on the thrust stage itself, surrounded by the action. Those seats come with champagne service.

You're not watching from a distance. You're in the room. The actors use the table seating as part of the club setting. It's the closest thing to being in a 1933 speakeasy without needing a password.

The Practical Details

Dates: Now through November 8, 2026.
Runtime: Approximately 2 hours and 35 minutes, including one intermission.
Tickets: $82–$124. Cabaret seating is limited and priced at the premium end.
Location: Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD 20832.
Age Recommendation: Ages 12 and up.

For Takoma Park and Montgomery County residents the drive from downtown Silver Spring is twenty minutes. Parking is free. The theater is intimate enough that you'll see every expression and hear every tap.

The Bottom Line

Some Like It Hot is a show about people who don't fit neatly into boxes, performed in a space that refuses to put the audience in one either. It's funny, it's tap-heavy, and it has something to say. And it's happening in your backyard.

Get your tickets at olneytheatre.org. And if you can, sit at a cabaret table. You won't regret it.

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