How do you take a 1982 movie about a badly behaved male actor who dresses as a woman for profit and rethink it as a viable property in the #MeToo era? The creators of the Broadway musical Tootsie—librettist Robert Horn (13 the Musical, TV’s Designing Women) and phenomenally versatile composer-lyricist David Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), a 2017 Tony winner for his score for last year’s Best Musical, The Band’s Visit—are no fools: Call out your main character’s outrageous antics.
“You can’t be serious,” says Jeff (Andy Grotelueschen) to his roommate, Michael Dorsey (Cinderella Tony nominee Santino Fontana, in the role that Dustin Hoffman made famous onscreen). “At a time when women are literally clutching their power back from between the legs of men, you have the audacity to take a job away from one by perpetrating one?” And, adds Jeff for good measure, “you know you’ll have to take a pay cut.”
[Read Steven Suskin’s ★★★★ review here.]
Yes, Tootsie has been brought into the 21st century—even if Dorothy Michaels, Michael Dorsey’s alter ego, hasn’t. She still wears a hair helmet, frumpy midcalf skirts, and pantyhose, which no one seems to question. Except Jeff, who describes Dorothy’s style as “Faye Dunaway as a gym coach, glittering clearance sale Jack Sparrow.” One other very smart update: The part Dorothy gets is in a Broadway musical, the destined-for-Joe-Allen’s-wall Juliet’s Curse; she’s cast as the Nurse. (Fans of the film might remember that Dorothy landed a recurring role as a hospital administrator in a soap opera—a very ’80s form of entertainment if ever there was one.) Also: Michael’s love interest, Dorothy’s costar Julie (SpongeBob SquarePants’ Lilli Cooper), turns out to be much more, shall we say, open to experimentation in this incarnation.
Tootsie is full of terrific moments: Yazbek’s delightfully pessimistic lyrics (one song repeats the line “you fucked it up,” to great effect); supporting turns from the sidesplittingly funny Sarah Stiles as hopelessly insecure neighbor Sandy (“My phone no longer recognizes my face I.D. unless I’m crying!”) and perennial scene-stealer Julie Halston as producer Rita, über-chic in an Ann Richards–white wig and a brocade Jackie O–inspired suit (“Dorothy, I’m rich. Not in family or friends. In money, the good rich”); lush—and magically magnetic—costumes by William Ivey Long (they go from the Renaissance to 1950s Cinecittà glam with a mere twirl of a skirt); and, most important, a genuinely believable, winning performance by Fontana, who’s so darn convincing as Dorothy that when he starts to sing as Michael it simply sounds wrong.
But it’s not all sequins and light. Unlike in the film, the egotistic hack director, here played by Reg Rogers, isn’t dating the leading lady—or treating her worse than anyone else. (Broadway Julie is too smart for that.) Yet during rehearsals of Juliet’s Curse, Julie and Dorothy develop an instantaneous bond—so powerful that Julie helps this bespectacled second banana in sensible square-heeled pumps overhaul the show and usurp her spotlight. Not only that, but the creative team inexplicably jumps on board with Dorothy’s rewrites and design changes. Is Tootsie actually a fairy tale? And on that subject: Regarding Sandy’s comment that “if you lose your shoe at midnight you’re probably drunk”—when did Broadway start quoting Instagram?
Let’s not kid ourselves—Tootsie will always be a little old-fashioned, no matter how evolved Dorothy and her pals get. But in that famous sparkly red dress, she looks right at home on Broadway.
Tootsie opened April 23, 2019, at the Marquis Theatre and runs through January 5, 2020. Tickets and information: tootsiemusical.com
