By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY

     Tony Curtis is not one to mince words — or gestures.

     "This way, my dear," the 77-year-old movie star says, taking the arm of a woman he has just been introduced to and, with conspicuous formality, escorting her through the vast lobby of a midtown hotel. Settling into a couch overlooking the restaurant and bar, he begins his spiel.

     "If I may be so bold," Curtis says, rhetorically, "I am the handsomest of men. And I'm a very energetic person. For me, life is about improving myself constantly, in every possible way."

     Curtis attributes his vim and vigor to a sensible diet and "the saliva of a beautiful woman" — his fifth wife, a 32-year-old platinum blonde named Jill Ann. Recently, his fitness regimen also has included dancing and singing lessons, taken in preparation for a new project that marks the veteran actor's first foray into musical theater.

     That would be Some Like It Hot, an original show based on the 1959 film classic of the same name, as well as 1972's Sugar, another stage musical the film inspired. In the movie, Curtis and Jack Lemmon co-starred as Joe and Jerry, two hapless musicians who disguise themselves as women in order to join an all-female band.

     In this new production — which began a 50-city tour in Houston on Tuesday, kicking off Theatre Under the Stars' inaugural season at the new Hobby Center for the Performing Arts — Curtis appears as Osgood Fielding III, the wealthy suitor smitten with "Daphne," Jerry's feminine alter ego. "I was typecast as an eccentric millionaire," Curtis quips.

     Curtis' onscreen character, who is played by Arthur Hanket in the new version, fell in love with Sugar, the sexy singer portrayed by Curtis' onetime flame Marilyn Monroe. But Curtis maintains that age is not relevant to his evolution from romantic leading man to character actor. "Honey, a part is a part is a part. It all depends on how you dress it and speak it. Whether there's a 40-year difference between this show and the movie has nothing to do with it. Ten years from now I'll probably play Sugar, you know?"

     Curtis feels that the new Hot, featuring a revised libretto by Peter Stone and songs by noted composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill (who collaborated on Funny Girl), should not be compared to the film. "You can do things with a camera that you can't do in the theater. You can't use a line in a song to imitate an emotion that registers on screen."

     The same rule should apply, Curtis maintains, in judging the musical adaptation of Sweet Smell of Success — also one of his most widely loved movies — which concludes a Broadway run June 15. Curtis hasn't seen it. But when told that the critical consensus is that the musical Success doesn't work as well as the film did, he can't help but smile faintly. "How could it be as good as the movie? The movie is the original of a genre."

     Indeed, Curtis is less than bullish on the current state of cinema. "I've made 122 movies, but I haven't found any lately that I'd like to be in. You could make yourself available to play Darth Vader and Stringo Strango and Supergirl and all that, but I don't find that appealing."

     Appearing in a musical, on the other hand, offers the old pro an opportunity to "break a new barrier. We're going to major cities all over the country, and we could go to London and Paris, maybe even Moscow. That's what I'd really love to do — tour the world. Wouldn't that be neat?"

     It's enough to make a Hollywood legend feel, well, humbled. "It's a gift I've been given, being allowed to perform in front of people like this. Someone must really trust me and like me. It's like I've won the lottery."