Amber Ruffin to co-write Broadway-bound Some Like It Hot musical

Late-night host and writer Amber Ruffin will help bring the new Some Like It Hot musical to the Broadway stage in 2022.

Announced Wednesday, Ruffin joins Tony nominee Matthew López (The Inheritance) on the creative team of the adaptation, which is based on MGM's 1959 comedy. She and López will write the book, with music from Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray), and Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon) handling direction and choreography.

"I am so thrilled to be working with real Broadway legends Matthew López, Casey Nicholaw, Marc Shaiman, and Scott Wittman on this honestly groundbreaking project," Ruffin said in a statement. "This is truly a different kind of musical and I can't wait for people to see it!"

Ruffin is known largely for her work as a writer and guest commentator on Late Night with Seth Meyers, but lately she's been focusing on her own show, The Amber Ruffin Show, on Peacock.

Some Like It Hot is set in Prohibition-era Chicago, where we find two musicians on the run after witnessing a mob hit. They become the newest members of "the swingingest big band" ever to cross the country. The original film starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon.

López said he convinced the adaptation was something worth doing by "the opportunity to take a classic comedy about Prohibition-era America and rethink it for a contemporary audience."

"As a queer BIPOC writer, it is an exciting proposition to create a show with characters whose race is instrumental (and not incidental) to the story," he continued. "It became apparent to me that if we were to honor our commitment to tell that story with honesty and integrity, it required a Black creative voice on the team. It didn't take long for all of us to agree that Amber was the person to approach. It is my great joy and pleasure that she agreed to join us. That she's smart and funny and deeply kind is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to her work and career these last several years. I cannot wait to huddle in the back of the theatre with her every night and work with her to continue to make this show the thing we all set out to create."

This new production is produced by the Shubert Organization and Neil Meron, and co-produced by Roy Furman, Robert Greenblatt, the Nederlander Organization, and Kenny Leon.

Related content:

• Some Like It Hot to become a Broadway musical
• Watch Late Night writer Amber Ruffin recall repeated experiences with police racism
• Watch the trailers for new Peacock talk shows from Larry Wilmore, Amber Ruffin