The story of his life

Tony Curtis says it's I Fall in Love Too Easily, a song from Some Like It Hot, the musical. But it's also embodied in the show itself, a version of his 1959 film that has him back onstage in 2002 and '03.

By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 31, 2002

[Publicity photo] ABOVE: Tony Curtis, right, with Arthur Hankett in the stage version of Some Like It Hot. BELOW: Tony Curtis, left, with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon in the classic 1959 film Some Like It Hot.

At 77, Tony Curtis is appearing onstage for the first time since going into the movies in the late 1940s. He is touring the country in a musical theater production of Some Like It Hot -- the film he starred in 43 years ago.

"I'm really happy doing it," Curtis said, on the phone from a tour stop in Detroit.

"I'm making a lot of money, and I get to meet all the people I've known all my life, going to my movies. How lucky I am. I'm healthy, feeling good, I've got a beautiful wife. I get to travel."

The tour, which opens a weeklong run tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall, started last June in Houston and winds up in Portland, Ore., in May.

"It's a unique and unusual profession, my friend," Curtis said. "It's certainly better than being an attorney -- and I'm not bumming that. I'm just saying what an active and stimulating life people can have, and how did that happen to me? It started out so sullen and so dismal, and look what happened."

Curtis, born Bernard Schwartz, the son of an immigrant Jewish tailor from Hungary, went a long way from his tough upbringing in the Bronx to become a Hollywood matinee idol.

His filmography numbers more than 120 roles, none better than the cross-dressing sax player Joe, or Josephine, in Some Like It Hot. In the classic 1959 comedy, directed by Billy Wilder, Curtis and Jack Lemmon play dance-band musicians who witness the St. Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago and dress up as women to escape mob killers. The two join an all-woman orchestra, which includes Marilyn Monroe, that takes them to Florida.

In the musical, Curtis plays the Joe E. Brown role of the old millionaire Osgood Fielding III. He has the famous punch line that closes the movie and the musical.

"Nobody's perfect," Osgood deadpans when Jerry, a.k.a. Daphne, the Lemmon character, reveals he's a guy.

"The laugh comes really powerfully in the theater," Curtis said. "And as it hits, it blacks out, so it's as if you don't even remember seeing it, you just heard it. It gets a thunderous response from the audience. It makes it a unique and interesting experience."

The last time Curtis sang and danced was in a forgettable screen musical, So This Is Paris, which came out in 1954, when he was mainly doing swashbucklers. "I ran the film for Gene Kelly, who was a good friend of mine, and I said 'Gene, how did you like the way I danced in that movie?' He said, 'Keep fencing.' That was the only time I did a musical."

The stage version of Some Like It Hot is based on a 1972 musical called Sugar, named for Sugar Kane, the Monroe character. Peter Stone revised his book from that show, and the songs are by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics). Curtis never saw the musical that starred Robert Morse and Tony Roberts on Broadway, but he thinks it missed the point.

"They took the character of Sugar and tried to make her the central part," he said. "But it can't be. The story is about two musicians who see a murder and have to get dressed up as girls to avoid getting killed. That's what Some Like It Hot is about. It is not about Sugar finding a guy."

Did Curtis offer any advice to Arthur Hankett, Timothy Gulan and Jodi Carmeli, the actors playing, respectively, Joe, Jerry and Sugar?

"Nah, that was 45 years ago. This is the theater; this is not movies. When you play a closeup in a movie, that camera is right in your hair. In the theater, I don't care how close your audience is, it's still about 150 feet away when you're swapping spit with your leading lady."

[Times files] Tony Curtis, who starred in such popular movies as Trapeze, Houdini, The Defiant Ones (his only Oscar nomination) and Spartacus, says he thinks his finest performance was as murderer Albert DeSalvo in The Boston Strangler, above.

In his long career, Curtis starred in such popular movies as Trapeze, Houdini, The Defiant Ones (his only Oscar nomination), Spartacus, Operation Petticoat and Sweet Smell of Success. He thinks his finest performance was as the murderer Albert DeSalvo in The Boston Strangler, released in 1968.

"That's a really good movie," he said. "Take another look at it. It's uncomplicated, very simple. That camera stays on me for 20 minutes, and in that 20 minutes, I go through all of the madness the man went through."

In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked Some Like It Hot as the greatest film comedy ever made. Along with Wilder, Lemmon, Monroe and Brown, it also featured George Raft and Pat O'Brien. Only Curtis is still alive. He has vivid memories of his director and co-stars.

-- "I remember Billy Wilder as somewhat cynical. He was like a father figure. I always felt like a stepson to him. I always wanted him to like me a lot, and he did, but I never got the affection that I wanted from him."

-- "Jack was like a brother to me. We were two hungry actors, just a couple of guys running around trying to take it easy with each other."

-- "I loved Marilyn. We knew each other from about '51, when she tried to get a contract at Universal, where I was on contract. We went together for about six months, so we were lovers. It was tough for Marilyn (during filming of Some Like It Hot, when her marriage to Arthur Miller was on the rocks), but that's the way it goes."

[Publicity photo] Tony Curtis, 77, is surrounded by cast members of the stage production of Some Like It Hot. The touring show runs through Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Curtis travels with his fifth wife, the former Jill Ann VandenBerg, an equestrian from San Diego less than half his age. Last week, the tour had a break for Christmas, which the Curtises spent at their Las Vegas home.

"The touring life is very difficult," he said. "I get as much rest as I can. My wife helps me. Unless you've got your act together, it'll kill you. You've got to be very single-minded and keep your eye on the sparrow, so to speak."

Curtis performs three songs and is in three dance numbers in the musical. "My favorite is a vocal called I Fall in Love Too Easily, which is the story of my life," he said, then recited the lyrics in his pungent New York accent.

"I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast. I fall in love too terribly hard, for love to ever last. . . ."

With his song and dance star turn, Curtis is connecting one more time with the greatest love of his life, an audience.

"When I go out onstage, there's no lights on, so I don't see anybody. But when the lights come on, I look into the theater and I try to lock eyes with whoever I see. That's making it a very appealing experience to me. It's nice for me to be out there with the audience after all those years hiding behind the camera."

Theater preview

Some Like It Hot opens at 8 tonight and runs through Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets: $35-$55. (727) 791-7400 or www.rutheckerdhall.com.

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