Michael Dorsey and his female alter ego Dorothy Michaels share the Dolby Theatre stage in Tootie, the Tony-winning 2019 Broadway adaptation of the 1982 movie smash, a musical comedy as classic in concept and construction as it is contemporary in its attitudes, casting, and execution.

Drew Becker delivers a star-making performance as struggling New York actor Michael, who’d probably get cast at least once in a while if he didn’t make the life of every single director a living hell.

Take for instance the Broadway-bound musical whose ensemble he’s currently a part of, but won’t be for much longer, not after he tells director-choreographer Ron Carlisle (Adam du Plessis) that he won’t be joining his fellow chorus members in singing “the city is all heart” because the back story he’s given his “character” is that of “a traumatized war vet evicted from his rent-controlled apartment during the sewage-baked heat of summer,” no matter that this is nowhere in the script.

Not surprisingly, Michael is quickly given the ax, however upon learning that his ex-girlfriend Sandy (Payton Reilly) is trying out for the role of Juliet’s Nurse in a new musical sequel to Romeo & Juliet, a lightbulb goes on above Michael’s head.

Though a persona non grata Michael Dorsey would probably get thrown out of any audition room he sets foot in, perhaps a certain “Dorothy Michaels” might make it past the first tryout.

Enter a statuesque, full-figured, bespectacled redhead named who so wows Juliet’s Nurse producer (Kathy Halenda as Rita Marshall) that “Dorothy” books the role opposite the comely Julie Nichols (Ashley Alexandra) as Juliet and muscular himbo Max Van Horn (Lukas James Miller) as Romeo’s brother Craig.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Michael opts not to tell Sandy he got cast in the role she was aiming for.

 Unfortunately, he has no choice but to let his roommate Jeff (Jared David Michael Grant) in on the ruse, to said roomie’s absolute horror.

And as anyone who’s seen Tootsie The Movie can tell you, things get really complicated when Michael starts falling for Julie, knowing even as he falls that she must never find out that Dorothy isn’t exactly the woman she claims to be.

Though the biggest change made by book writer Ron Horn (who won a Tony for adapting the movie’s Oscar-nominated screenplay) is to substitute a Broadway musical for a daytime soap, he’s also made sure to update the film’s early-‘80s attitudes, like examining the innate wrongness of a male actor robbing a woman of a part that ought rightfully be hers, and viewing womanizing director Ron though #metoo-influenced eyes, and transforming Julie from the self-doubting svelte blonde (the role that won Jessica Lange her first Oscar) to a confident, plus-size woman of color. (Bill Murray’s Jeff has been recast too in Kenan Thompson/Craig Robinson mode.)

Most importantly of all, Horn has penned a musical with as many laughs as a Neil Simon classic, composer-lyricist David Yazbek has written tunes that will actually stay in your head as you exit the theater, and Denis Jones has choreographed numbers that are a) entirely his own fabulous creations and b)  “Ron Carlisle’s” over-the-top rip-offs of Fosse, Bennett, and Robbins.

Tootsie’s non-Equity First National Tour means that you won’t find a single Broadway or off-Broadway vet in the cast, many of whom are fresh out of college.

What this doesn’t mean is shortchanging an audience where talent is concerned, and director Dave Solomon brings out the best from every single up-and-comer in the cast.

Case in point is the instantly likable Becker (Shenandoah Conservatory Class of 2018 and probably fifteen years younger than his Original Cast counterpart Santino Fontana), who positively dazzles in a pair of roles whose prodigious vocal demands would tax even the most gifted Broadway star, while making Dorothy every bit as authentic a woman as Michael is a man.

Alexandra proves the most luminous of leading ladies with the richest of pipes, a terrifically droll Miller’s vocals are as gorgeous as his ripped, frequently bared physique, Grant steals every scene he’s in as Michael’s flabbergasted roommate Jeff, Reilly is a ditzy hoot as Sandy, and du Plessis plays hilarious “tribute” to every self-obsessed director/choreographer who’s ever made an actor’s life hell.

Connor Allston (Stuart) Steve Brustien (Stan Fields), Halenda, Dominique Kempf (Suzie), and Alec Ruiz (Carl) lend terrific support, and you won’t find a Broadway song-and-dance ensemble more talented than Leyla Ali, Allston, Darius Aushay, Michael Bingham, Kyra Christopher, Delaney Gold, Maverick Hiu, Kempf, Marquez Linder, Lucy Panush, Ruiz, and Stefanie Renee Salyers. (Dance captain Lexi Baldachino and assistant dance captain Ashton Lambert double as swings.)

Production design is National Tour topnotch all the way, in particular Broadway legend William Ivey Long’s Tony-nominated array of gorgeous contemporary city wear, 1950s elegance, and Elizabethan looks.

Andrea Grody is supervising musical director, Andrew David Sotomayor is music director, and the production’s live orchestra provides pitch-perfect accompaniment throughout the show. Suzayn Mackenzie-Roy is production stage manager.

Though “innovative” musicals tend to sweep the Tonys these days (case in point, Hadestown, which beat Toostie in all but two categories two years back), there’s still a place for a classic musical comedy like the one now wowing audiences at the Dolby. If you’re anything like me, you’ll fall hard for Drew Becker’s Dorothy (and for his Michael Dorsey too).

Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.
www.BroadwayInHollywood.com
www.tootsiemusical.com

Also playing May 30 through June 12, Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 7:30. Saturdays at 2:00 and 7:30. Sundays at 1:00 and 6:30.
www.scfta.org

–Steven Stanley
April 26, 2022
Photos: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Tags: Broadway In Hollywood, David Yazbek, Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Ron Horn