Arkansas Towns As Broadway Musicals: Bentonville - Discover What Makes You Happy at Some Like It Hot

We chose a local town to perfectly describe a Broadway Musical that’s coming to Walton Arts Center this season. Get to know your NWA neighbors and learn about these shows - then make plans to experience both!

Bentonville and Some Like It Hot both know how to mix sophistication with a dash of mischief — and look fabulous doing it.

Just like Some Like It Hot’s jazzy, fast-paced energy, Bentonville buzzes with creativity, innovation and a love of rediscovery. The town’s trendy downtown scene could easily double as a glamorous backdrop for a chase scene involving two musicians in disguise – straight out of the musical.

Beneath all the polish, though, both share a deeper message about belonging and finding your true self in unexpected places.

Bentonville proves, much like this musical, that life’s a lot more fun when you mix a little chaos with charm and let the good times swing.

Fast-paced energy, big-time charm

We're coming in HOT, Northwest Arkansas! Set in Prohibition era, this hilarious musical follows two down-on-their-luck musicians who, after witnessing a mob hit, go on the run to escape the gangsters hot on their trail.

And what a trip it is! With its irresistible combination of heart and laughs, song and dance, Some Like It Hot won more theater awards than any show in its season, and was named Best Musical by the Drama Desk, The Drama League, and the Outer Critics Circle. No wonder Deadline calls it “a tap-dancing, razzle-dazzling embrace of everything you love about musical theater.”

In early scenes in the musical set in Chicago, Barnes was able to pay homage to the amazing textile patterns of the 1930s: off-center geometrics, wacky florals and anything argyle to complement Scott Pask’s industrial Deco surround.

This production was the most awarded musical in the 2022-23 Broadway season including four Tony Awards including best choreography and best costumes and a Grammy Award for best musical theater album so you know it looks beautiful and sounds amazing!

“Some Like It Hot is the kind of project I love to design. It has everything!,” said award-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes. “The costume demands include so many walks of life: Chicago gangsters, speakeasy patrons, jazz bands, an eccentric millionaire and even a quick trip south of the border—these are folks with a dream, running away from (or towards) a new destiny.

With a book by Tony-winner Matthew López (The Inheritance) and Amber Ruffin, vibrant musical score crafted by the Hairspray team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and Tony-winning choreography from director Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Mean Girls, Aladdin), Some Like It Hot is a fresh adaptation that is “a super-sized all out song-and-dance spectacular” (The New York Times)!

What an assignment!” Nicholaw said. “To take a beloved film and give it a modern twist while staying true to the spirit of the original; to craft a piece that feels classic yet modern, funny yet moving. In the process of working with a great quartet of writers—Matthew, Amber, Marc & Scott—we discovered that we could go deeper into the characters and their feelings because now they could sing. And dance!”

“I wanted the choreography to serve the story. In that regard, I was lucky that it was a story about a band. So in staging numbers such as “A Darker Shade of Blue,” “Ride Out the Storm,” “Take It Up A Step,” and “He Lied When He Said Hello,” I could blend the world of our characters with the performances of Sweet Sue’s Society Syncopators. One other thing stands out as a huge joy: the creation of “Tip Tap Trouble,” the climactic dance in Act 2….I was able to take all the puzzle pieces of the story and instead of having a long dialogue scene, convey it all through choreography.“

Some Like It Hot “is a booze-soaked, boisterous good time from start to finish” (Entertainment Weekly) - a safe bet if you are looking for a fun, fabulous night out at the theater.