Book by PETER STONE
Music by Jule Styne     Lyrics by Bob Merrill

Musical Direction by
JEFF TANSKI

Choreographed by
MICHAEL O'STEEN

Directed  by
CHARLES REPOLE

CAST
in order of appearance

Sweet Sue	Ann-Ngaire Martin*
Sugar Kane	Colleen Hawks*
Society Syncopators
Piano	Emily Jan Bender
Bass	Christina Laschuk
Sax	Jessica Lorion
Trumpet	Meghan Starr
Trombone	Natalia Barzilai
Beinstock	Brian Maxsween
Joe/Josephine	Gary Lynch*
Jerry/Daphne	Eric Santagata*
Musical Contractor	Patrick David
Spats Palazzo	Yoav Levin
Dude	Warren Curtis*
Knuckles Norton	Colin Pritchard*
First Hood	Glenn Giron
Second Hood	Richard Cerato
Mechanic	Patrick David
Train Announcer/Conductor	Michael LaMasa
Reporters	Glenn Giron, Richard Cerato
Photographer	Colin Pritchard*
Cab Driver	Zak Edwards*
Olga	Meghan Starr
Dolores	Christina Laschuk
Mary Lou	Natalia Barzilai
Joanie	Allie Schauer
Rosella	Jessica Lorion
Bellboy	Glenn Giron
Henchman	Michael LaMasa
Sir Osgood Feilding, Jr.	Ed Romanoff*
Dance Captain / Non-performing Swing	Roger Preston Smith*
*Members of Actor's Equity Association, the only professional union for Actors and Stage Managers.

Eric Santagata	Gary Lynch	Colleen Hawks
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From the hilarious hit movie "Some Like it Hot" comes SUGAR - the outrageously funny Broadway musical success.  SUGAR is the story of two down on their luck musicians in prohibition era Chicago.  When the two happen to witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, they find themselves targets of tap-dancing gangster Spatz Palazzo and his henchmen.  Disguising themselves as women, the musical pair joins an all-female band headed for Miami.  Hilarity ensues when Joe (now known as Josephine) falls for Sugar Kane, the band's lead singer, while Jerry ( now known as Daphne) tries to avoid a rich suitor who is unaware that "she" is actually a "he."  All the while, the mob is hot on their trail.  Take this zany story and add an effervescent Jule Styne and Bob Merrill score and you've got a Tony Nominated, must-see musical that will thoroughly entertain the whole family from the first note to the final rousing chorus!

BY JAMES F. COTTER      For the Times Herald-Record

ELMSFORD – “Sugar” is the musical version of the movie “Some Like It Hot” about two musicians who disguise themselves as girls to escape from the Chicago mob in 1929.  They join an all-girls band heading for Miami and fall for sexy Sugar Kane.  The 1959 Billy Wilder movie featured Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as the guys in drag and Marilyn Monroe as Sugar.

    “Doin’ it for Sugar” is the motif of the 1972 David Merrick musical directed and choreographed by Gower Champion.  The music by Jule Styne and lyrics of Bob Merrill, with book by Arthur Laurents, perfectly suit Westchester Broadway Theatre’s tradition of classy classic musical revivals with leading singers, glamorous chorus girls, lavish costumes and handsome sets.  This “Sugar” is sweet and one of the better dinner-theater shows at Broadway.  It is its 165^th production.

    Directed by Charles Repole, with choreography by Michael O’Steen and musical direction by Jeff Tanski, the show stars Eric Santagata as Jerry (aka Daphne) and Gary Lynch as Joe (aka Josephine).  Colleen Hawks stars as the blonde delicacy Sugar Kane who is everyone’s favorite dish on the band and with the boys.  Hawks is a Marilyn look-alike who opens the show singing “When You Meet a Girl in Chicago” with a honeyed voice and swishing hips that mix femininity and humor.  She is accompanied by the Society Syncopators led by Sweet Sue (Ann-Ngaire Martin) whose name belies her tart character. They belt out “Turn Back the Clock” as Jerry and Joe appear to introduce themselves as “Penniless Bums” seeking work as musicians.  They happen to witness a gang murder led by Spats Pallazzo (Yoav Levin) who do a terrific tap dancing routine with machinegun precision and excitement.

    Santagata plays Jerry as an upbeat comic who turns into Daphne with exotic outfits and exaggerated girlish mannerisms.  Gary Lynch as Joe, on the other hand, is a big man with a big voice who makes his role as Josephine even more appealingly ludicrous.  Their duets, “Doin’ it for Sugar” and “The Beauty That Drives Men Mad,” propel the plot and establish their friendship and rivalry.  They trade matching solos, Jerry’s “Magic Nights” and Joe’s “It’s Always Love,” as Joe pretends to be a millionaire declaring the glories of “Shell Oil” to win over Sugar, while hapless Jerry is pursued by the wealthy Sir Osgood Fielding, Jr., deliciously portrayed by Ed Romanoff who is light on his feet and truly amusing as he woos his Daphne with “Beautiful Through and Through.”

    Brian Maxsween has the task as Beinstock of getting the show on the road and keeping Sweet Sue and the Syncopators from going sour.  That never happens as the company of 14 sing and dance with marvelous energy and grace.  Seven musicians sustain the illusion of on-stage instruments and musical fare that is tasteful and always appetizing.  But this is mostly Sugar’s show and Hawks sings solos “See You Around,” “Hey, Why Not?” and “The People in My Life” with high style and relish.

    “Sugar” runs through July 3^rd so be sure to treat yourself to an entertaining feast of laughter and good cheer.    

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White Plains CitizeNetReporter - See it for SUGAR! SPATS! OSGOOD ...
By jfbailey
Ms. Hawks breathlessly carries the Westchester Broadway Theatre “just in time” diversion – SUGAR – with her companions in flapper skirts, Gary Lynch as Joe/Josephine (right) and Eric Santagata as Jerry/Daphne, left – the sax and bass ...
White Plains CitizeNetReporter - http://www.whiteplainscnr.com/

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05/09/2010 Sugar By: Eugene Paul Eric Santagata (Daphne/Jerry) Colleen Hawks (Sugar Kane) and Gary Lynch (Josephine/Joe) If you read the entertaining program notes at the Westchester Broadway Theater chronicling the chaos and agonies around the original Broadway production of Sugar as it was being hammered together, you’d doubtless smile sardonically, nod your head and say to yourself “Now, that’s the basis for a really, knock down, drag out funny musical”. Don’t forget to pay attention to Mrs. Merrick’s knitting needles. Well, Sugar isn’t that musical; it’s got its own chaos and agonies, still funny but wrought for a time when we were quite a different society: the Depression. Just being ironic. Sugar is based on the Billy Wilder movie, Some Like It Hot, which had nothing to do with pease porridge and all to do with Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis, all hot name stars decorating a story about girls, gangsters and a couple of guys masquerading as girls in order not to get killed. It takes place in that way back Depression when lots and lots of people were out of jobs including Jerry (Gary Lynch) and Joe (Eric Santagata), musicians. Unemployed musicians were a nickel a dozen in Mob ruled Chicago, so when these two unfortunates witnessed a Mob rub-out, they were slated for erasure themselves. To escape with their lives, they join an all girl band on its way to a gig in Miami. As girls. Yes, times have changed, but it’s still a workable risibility factor and back then, a comic wowser. The musical was a smash hit just as the movie was a smash hit. Men in drag drags them in. And much of the aura remains in the Westchester Broadway Theater production although Joe, as Josephine, and Jerry as Daphne, despite wigs, fake boobs, makeup and drippy dresses, remain dubious broads at best and I don’t know which way is funnier: to fake or fake out. But their co-star, Colleen Hawks, as Sugar Kane, the spit of vintage Marilyn Monroe – and it was an excellent vintage – is the very all girl singer in the all girl band, without a doubt. Both Joe and Jerry are panting for her pantable charms. So embroiled are they about getting into her pants that they forget about the gangsters who have not forgotten about them and are still on their trail and, as they do in musicals, show up. Whereupon the skit hits the fan. Along the way, Jerry, as Daphne, has excited the passions of a ditsy old money bags, Sir Osgood, done to a hilarious twitch and shuffle by Ed Romanoff, totally taken by her charms. You’ll never guess what happens. Photos by John Vecchiolla Musicals, of course, depend on their music for their existence and two masters, composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill certainly know how to provide a practical score but does Sugar have a hit or two we’ve been singing for the past fifty-some years? No. Not one has made its way, down Memory Lane or Tin Pan Alley but all of them propel the girlish/boyish plot. And certainly the original Gower Champion choreographic roots of Michael O’Steen’s choreography lend a definitely witty zing to – of all areas – our gangsters. Because they rat-a-tat, not only with their machine guns but with their feet. Dem mobsters, dey tap dance! Fantastico! Then and now. Works like a charm. Throughout the show, there are other charms, the girls in their nighties, the rolling chaise lounges, seduction at sea, those sturdy, “almost” songs, even though Time has changed our vision of how things are versus how they were then. You’d be all ready to rack up Joe and Jerry as gay, but they’re very much not, which tightens the strength of the situation, although there’s room for at least a bit of conjecture, which director Charles Repole dismisses. He wants the Joe and Jerry story line to stay as it is, as it was, no fiddling. He wants his punch curtain line. And he gets it. No question about it, WBT, with this, their 165th production, continues its winning ways. Westchester Broadway Theater, 1 Broadway Plaza, Elmsford, NY 10523. Tickets: 914-592-2222, Dinner and show: $75. Wed-Sat Dinner 6 pm, show 8 pm. Sun Dinner 5 pm, show 7 pm. Matinees Wed, Thu $62. Lunch 11:30 am, show 1 pm. Through July 3, 2010

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When I saw the 1959 movie“Some Like it Hot” in its original release, I thought as an impressionable youngster that it was one of the greatest pictures I I had ever seen, right up there with “Gone with the Wind” and “Th e Wizard of Oz.” Seriously.

It had everything going for it--the sex goddess Marilyn Monroe, for whom I was a blubbering adolescent fan, gangsters, slapstick comedy and my first exposure to men in drag. 

“Sugar,” now being presented at the Westchester Broadway Theatre (WBT), is the 1972 stage musical adaptation of the movie.

In this production of “Sugar,” leads Gary Lunch (Joe/Josephine) and Eric Santagata (Jerry/Daphne) look particularly ridiculous as women, and I would never have dated either one of them, especially Josephine, who has the build of a linebacker. But, boy, can these men/pretend girls act and sing.

There’s nothing particularly improved about the book, or even equal, to the script of the movie, in that it has action gaps that memory of the movie would help close.  The music is undistinguished, which is a surprise considering that the story is set in the Roaring ‘20s, which would seem to offer many derivative opportunities, and scored by Jule Styne, who gave us “Funny Girl” and “Gypsy.”

The problem may have stemmed from a backstage story, gleaned from program notes, that producer David Merrick had developed into a tyrant by the time of the musical and drove his creative staff nuts, perhaps stifling their best work. He brought in many other talents to shore up the show, such as the great Neil Simon and Jerry Herman who both wrote additional material. Oddly, it was never used. If it had been, I’m sure we would have gotten a couple of memorable tunes on the order of “Hello, Dolly!

All that said, what appears on stage here is sweet as sugar. Besides the ever-engaging Ann-Ngaire Martin as Sweet Sue, there are three particularly great delights of the evening.

Colleen Hawks as Sugar Kane (played by Marilyn in the movie) has the Marilyn persona down pat. Not only does she look like the sex goddess, but with her pouty mouth, an eternally surprised look and her dead-on little girl, whispery speech, she is uncannily on the mark.

Ed Romanoff as Sir Osgood Fielding, Jr., could run an actors’ school on comic timing alone. He was as totally delightful to watch in his role as was the elastic faced Joe E. Brown who played it in the movie.

And the third delight was the tap, tap, tapping gangsters uproariously led by Yoav Levin as Spats Palazzo. Th is talented young man can milk every nuance out of a subtle jester, such as descending on the hydraulic lift and, just before his head disappears, he clicks one fi nger up to the next action on stage.

Or he can be as broad as when he is riddled with bullets and dies a thousand deaths, creating one spastic convulsion after another until, finally, his upper body starts its descent into the pit. But his legs remain on stage until they are smoothly deposited into the lift , with his black and white retro shoes as the last thing seen.

I intentionally decided against seeing the original Broadway production of “Sugar,” maybe because I thought I would be just as disappointed as I was when I saw the London West End musical production of “Gone with the Wind,” or maybe it was that I was broke at the time. But, I always say this with unabashed enthusiasm: I would get out to see anything WBT does. It is a great regional treasure and its production values are always superior.

For a really sweet night out, “Sugar” doesn’t disappoint.