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...straightforward pleasures that ''Some Like It Hot'' has in abundance.
...''Some Like It Hot'' is simply a fun night at the theater with melodic song after energetic dance after romantic/comic interlude.
...Curtis, as the elder statesman looking for love in all the wrong places...
...Jodi Carmeli...fabulous as Sugar...including pipes that bring the house down with her late-in-the-show torch song.
...The other tour de force performance is William Ryall as Spats...
...the best comedy ever made, the story is your average boy dressed up as girl meets girl, boy dressed as boy gets girl, boy dressed as girl loses girl, boy dressed as boy gets girl again...the source material can't be beat
...Gulan gets more and more into the Daphne (Lemmon) role in the second half, the more he starts to shine
...Hanket's big surprise comes when he turns into the rich seducer and instead of using the Cary Grant accent, out comes Teddy Kennedy.
- Ed Siegel / Boston Globe 1/16/2003

Curtis was all the buzz in the lobby of BTI Center for the Performing Arts, mostly among the ladies...
...Sugar's a sure bet. Jodi Carmeli is Monroe to the max in her portrayal
...with... Daphne (Timothy Gulan)...their chemistry and sweet interaction
...Carmeli also brings grit and soul to her Act II show-stopper, "People in My Life"
...Lenora Nemetz's (as 'Sweet Sue') solid performance
...James Leonard Joy's sets and Suzy Benzinger's costumes are gorgeous and clever - Orla Swift / Raleigh News and Observer

...Curtis appears to be having the time of his life up there, smiling winningly... Tuesday's opening night crowd applauded his every move and gave him a standing ovation at the end. - Peter Filichia / Star-Ledger

Long before "La Cage Aux Folles," "Tootsie" ... Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon were making like women in "Some Like It Hot."

...Curtis returns ... in the musical version of "Some Like It Hot," which opened Tuesday night at the Rosemont Theatre.
...Curtis ... easily handles the role of Osgood Fielding III...
...Sweet-voiced Jodi Carmeli, who plays Sugar, is the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe... Projecting sensuality as much as she does vulnerability...
...6-foot-5-inch William Ryall, one of the most unusual and impressive tap dancers to behold. As head thug Spats ... he leads his posse in a gangsta tap where the machineguns' tat-a-tat-tat are sounded out by their tap shoes.
...F Troop" fans will be delighted to see ... Larry Storch as the wimpy band manager Bienstock - Jae-Ha Kim / Chicago Sun-Times        

...straightforward pleasures that ''Some Like It Hot'' has in abundance.
...''Some Like It Hot'' is simply a fun night at the theater with melodic song after energetic dance after romantic/comic interlude.
...Curtis, as the elder statesman looking for love in all the wrong places...
...Jodi Carmeli...fabulous as Sugar...including pipes that bring the house down with her late-in-the-show torch song.
...The other tour de force performance is William Ryall as Spats...
...the best comedy ever made, the story is your average boy dressed up as girl meets girl, boy dressed as boy gets girl, boy dressed as girl loses girl, boy dressed as boy gets girl again...the source material can't be beat
...Gulan gets more and more into the Daphne (Lemmon) role in the second half, the more he starts to shine
...Hanket's big surprise comes when he turns into the rich seducer and instead of using the Cary Grant accent, out comes Teddy Kennedy.
- Ed Siegel / Boston Globe 1/16/2003

""Some Like It Hot'' is easily the most enjoyable musical to hit Ruth Eckerd Hall in a long time.
... it's headlined by Hollywood legend Tony Curtis...as a lecherous old millionaire in this clever stage version...with contagious good humor, enjoying himself. You will enjoy him, too.
...Arthur Hanket and Timothy Gulan are hilarious...
...As Sugar Kane, the band's sexy singer, Jodi Carmeli is a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe...
... William Ryall as Spats, is as tall as Tommy Tune, as ... sinister and funny as Jack Palance, and as agile as Fred Astaire.
... This brassy, sassy show has all the fun of the original, from a dishy heroine...to naughty old millionaires sunning themselves at a Florida hotel very much like the DonCeSar in St.Pete Beach. Joanne Milani / The Tampa Tribune

...Carmeli (as the Marilyn Monroe character "Sugar") has the voice and personality to sell a song...
...I grew fond of the tap-dancing gangsters led by Spats (William Ryall), in double-breasted pinstripe suits, who rub out a rival gang to the rat-a-tat-tat of their machine-gun tap shoes....
...The chorus girls are charmers, the sets and costumes top-quality.
...The opening-night audience seemed content with the opportunity to beam good wishes and "atta-boys" at the 77-year-old Curtis.  And Curtis beamed back. - Joan Behrmann / The Detroit News

... 100% recommend Some Like It Hot.
... while Jodi Carmeli steals the show overall, William Ryall definitely steals the show when it comes to dancing!
...The actors who play Joe and Jerry, Arthur Hanket and Timothy Gulan... are hysterical.
- ali78 / Epinions.com

...a tribute Tony Curtis, a reconnection to a history of performance still vivid....
He delivers the iconic final line with perfection and joins the girls for some energetic tapping...
...Timothy Gulan is a master of klutzy comedy as Jerry and Arthur Hanket is a pleasant Joe... But it's the women who star...
... Jodi Carmeli is a delectable Sugar with an expressive voice and a body around which every flapper bead curls with loving duty
...As bandleader Sweet Sue, Lenora Nemetz is a fluid comic engine, driving the show with her lively baton and high-kicking dance.
...the cleverest embellishment is to turn gangster Spats (William Ryall) and his sidekicks into tap-dancing killers ...plenty of jazzy dance and a winning smile. And it makes those memories live. -Christopher Rawson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

..."Some Like it Hot" acts like a throwback Broadway tap-dancing extravaganza, it's hot, hot, hot.
...Curtis ... he's irresistibly fun to watch
 "Some Like it Hot" has a lot more going for it than just Curtis...
... Best of all are the...tap-dancing gangsters Spats (the stringy William Ryall) and his terrific thugs (Bobby Clark and James Darrah).
...The set is surprisingly textured, opening with stunning charcoal-gray spliced flats that offer a grimy aerial view of the 1929 Chicago skyline ... when the action shifts to sunny Miami, the black tones give way completely to spectacular blues and yellows. - John Moore / Denver Post

"Jodi Carmeli looks enough like Monroe to drive the men wild...belting "Runnin' Wild" and a soulful, searing "People in My Life" with riveting intensity."
"...shimmying, long-legged chorus in Suzy Benzinger's sharp, colorful flapper gowns, bathing suits and lingerie."
"...impressive tap dancing of William Ryall -- amazingly tall, craggy and sinisterly smooth in the George Raft role of the mobster Spats -- and his fleet-footed thugs...his men tap up a storm to "Tear the Town Apart."
"...It gets hotter as bandleader Sweet Sue (a dynamic, brassy Lenora Nemetz) leads her Society Syncopaters in Siretta's buoyant Charleston to "We Play in the Band"
"Musical director Lynn Crigler's orchestra handles the score with jazzy zest."
-Robert Hurwitt / San Francisco Chronicle   

Photo: John O'Hara / Chronicle

     It's Tony Curtis, baby! ...The first time he hits the stage, there's a palpable exhalation of breath from the crowd.
...Carmeli nails Marilyn's kittenish demeanor and sultry line delivery, and gives the show its ... shake-the-rafters musical number, showing off her considerable pipes in the torchy ``People in My Life.''
...this Tony Curtis vehicle satisfies...    -KAREN D'SOUZA / San Jose Mercury News

...if you enjoy vintage musicals ... "Hot" is just your cup of bathtub gin.
...The cast, particularly Hanket, Gulan, Ryall and Carmeli, is terrific.
...And Curtis... is wonderfully self-deprecating -- and it plays hilariously onstage. His performance is good-spirited fun...
...these girls just want to have fun.
...absolutely inspired, particularly the Valentine's Day Massacre, where the sound of bullets is reproduced by flying tap shoes. 
The biggest surprise about the show, though, is that it works so doggone well.    - PAT CRAIG / Contra Costa Times

"...Mr. Curtis's performance is definitely the main event.  He's lighter than air.  Cary Grant would be proud." -MATTHEW GUREWITSCH / TheNew York Times      - For the Full Story, Click Here

"'Some Like It Hot': A Lively Romp..."
"'Some Like It Hot' is meant to please in the way old-fashioned musical theater has always meant to please, and if you like a musical that winks at you adorably while making you laugh, you'll be very pleased indeed."
"...Star Tony Curtis mugs his way from the first moment he appears, endearingly trussed up as an aging millionaire playboy, to the end, when he delivers the show's famously perfect clincher."
"...light and airy musical version of "Some Like It Hot," Billy Wilder's classic sex comedy from 1959..."
"Arthur Hanket (Joe), Timothy Gulan (Jerry) and Jodi Carmeli (Sugar) are stage veterans."
"...Gulan frequently evokes the giddy delirium Lemmon did in playing Jerry/Daphne."
"...Carmeli, vocally as well as visually, often summons Monroe's trademark erotic innocence."
" They're well supported by a strong chorus and bit characters..."
"... a new genre of dance: gangsta tap, in which mobsters hotfoot it with the best of them...from Spats (William Ryall)..."
WILLIAM TRIPLETT / Washington Post

"Some Like It Hot... the musical version is sheer pleasure... "
"...Joe (Arthur Hanket) and Jerry (Timothy Gulan)... comic skills, particularly Mr. Gulan's, are top-notch."
" Ms. Carmeli (Sugar) is ravishing; her Marilyn Monroe impersonation is flawless, and this Sugar has a full-bodied voice to match the curves."
" Ms. Nemetz (Sweet Sue) also has great pipes; her sound is big and delightfully husky."
" Mr. Ryall's (Spats) villain is a pip, and Mr. Siretta has devised an inspired "theme" for him: whenever Spats and his henchmen are about, they tap dance menacingly; furiously when their tommy guns are blazing."
" old-fashioned musical comedy, unabashedly frothy and skillfully sleek as directed and choreographed by Dan Siretta"- TOM SIME / The Dallas Morning News   Photo Credit - MILTON HINNANT / DMN

  "Curtis: suave and sexy in a consciously klutzy way."
" Timothy Gulan and Arthur Hanket take the Lemmon and Curtis roles... they take impressive solo turns - Gulan on the comical Magic Nights, Hanket on It's Always Love"
"director/choreographer Dan Siretta expands on the tap motif, with wonderful results."
" a marvelous portrayal of Spats by William Ryall, a 6-foot-5 tower of talent.
"Jodi Carmeli is terrific."
" Diane Masters and Jeffrey Spolan, producing partners of the DSM's Michael Jenkins, have cast the satellite characters well."
"Notable among this contingent is Lenora Nemetz as Sweet Sue, the bandleader, who leads a squad of blondes on We Play in the Band."
- PERRY STEWART / Ft. Worth Star Telegram

Photo: William Ryall as "Spats" backed up by Bobby Clark and Tim Falter
and the rest of the Ensemble in "Tear The Town Apart"
Photo Credit: 2002 Carol Rosegg courtesy of Dallas Summer Musicals

The Kansas City Sun
"the biggest round of applause during opening night came opening night came when Curtis first took the stage near the end of Act I."
"Curtis does a little dancing and a little singing ... His performance is most bouyed by the wit and charm he's able to infuse into the role."
"Hanket and Gulan were, simply put, excellent casting choices"
"The highlight of the show is the exciting tap number 'Tear The Town Apart,' led by Ryall"
"Carmeli is mesmerizing on the stage."
"a fun, light-hearted production" -by Michael D. Smith, Sun Entertainment Editor

"One thing Tony can do is charm an audience"
"Aside from his natural charisma and relaxed performing style, Curtis provides vintage star power and a living link to the Wilder film, in which he co-starred with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe."
    "phenomenal dancing in this show courtesy of William Ryall as Spats"
    "Ryall and his thugs ... exhibit elegant, exhilarating tap routines"
    (Jodi Carmeli's) performance of "People in My Life," an evocative ballad late in the show, was a show-stopper."
    "bursts with creativity and high style" -Robert Trussell, The Kansas City Star

"Curtis is charming."
"Curtis has such a winningly modest stage presence it's hard not to be won over."
"...anyone who loves big old-time musicals will enjoy these terrific performers."
"When Jodi Carmeli sings "People in My Life," her gorgeous voice swells and catches with all the big-hearted emotion any Broadway moment could ask for."
"...the curvy, blond Carmeli also can belt out a song that will knock you to the back of your seat."
"William Ryall as Spats, the tap-dancing gangster, heads up a large chorus of tappers, who inspired rousing rounds of applause."
"...a great deal of old-time pizzazz!" - Lee Williams, Houston Press

Houston Chronicle: "Jodi Carmeli makes the strongest impression as Sugar, at once sexy and innocent. She looks great, moves well, wields a strong and supple singing voice and speaks in a fair approximation of Monroe's breathy delivery, catching some of her sympathetic quality as well."

"William Ryall scores with his virtuosic tapping as the menacing Spats. "

  USA Today featured a long and complimentary article on Tony Curtis and "Some Like It Hot" in their June 5th issue, the day after the show's boffo opening in the Theatre Under The Stars at Houston's Hobby Center.

The June 3, 2003 edition of Newsweek featured a Q&A column with Tony Curtis on page 67. The piece announces that Tony is hitting the road for the stage version of Some Like It Hot, more than 40 years after he starred in the film version of the same title. In the lighthearted piece the interviewer jokes with Tony about his female-dress costume in the film version and inquires about his singing ability, since Tony takes on the role of Osgood E. in the musical version.
The interviewer asks if Tony has given up on Hollywood movies in his older years. Tony says he doesn't want to play old men on the screen. The writer says, "But you're 76." Tony answers, "Are you kidding, my dear? I can get away with murder. I could still f--- around at being 50."

magazine featured a eight page story about Tony Curtis and "Some Like It Hot" in the June 3, 2002 issue, pp 72-79.  The story starts out with Tony and his work with his singing and dancing coaches a few months ago at home in Las Vegas.  Then the story moved to New York City as the whole cast and creative team got together to rehearse and prepare for the 2002-2003 National tour opening in Houston on June 4th.

For more press notices go to the Hot Flashes section of SpolanandMasters.com