Bidding Farewell to Some Like It Hot With Queen of the Bandstand, NaTasha Yvette Williams

After over a year on Broadway, Some Like It Hot takes its final bow at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre on December 30. Based on the classic 1959 film, the musical features a jazzy score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, as well as a clever book with old-fashioned charm and modern sensibilities by Matthew López and Amber Ruffin. To celebrate the 13-time Tony-nominated musical’s final weeks, we’re looking back on Charlie Cooper’s walk-and-talk for The Broadway Show with NaTasha Yvette Williams—the woman who commands the bandstand as Some Like It Hot’s unassailable Sweet Sue.

With a long list of Broadway credits to her name—from The Color Purple, to Waitress, to an extended tenure as Chicago’s Matron “Mama” Morton—Williams joins Cooper in reflecting on the impact she hopes she’s had on audiences who have come to see this show. “I think about little girls coming— little brown girls coming every day,” she says. “I think about sitting in those seats and being able to see someone that looks like you on stage, dreaming in a way that you hadn't thought of before.”

As a musical that honors the journey of finding yourself—whether through love or self-expression—this aspirational message is one that’s sent out to everyone who shows up at the Shubert. “Even if…you think you look different, it's just an encouragement to say, ‘Hey, there's space in place for me and I am accepted just how I am,’” offers Williams. “That's a beautiful thing.”