Ahead of tomorrow’s digital release through Decca Broadway of the original cast recording of Tootsie, The Hollywood Reporter offers an exclusive preview of seven cuts from the musical comedy, which is nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including best musical and best original score.
The show stars Santino Fontana — in the role made famous onscreen by Dustin Hoffman — as Michael Dorsey, a gifted New York actor whose pain-in-the-butt perfectionism has made him virtually unemployable, until he takes on his greatest challenge by adopting the female persona of actress Dorothy Michaels. In the meta twist of this new stage version, Dorothy becomes an overnight star not of a daytime hospital soap, as she did in the 1982 movie, but of a Broadway musical, a sequel to Romeo and Juliet.
Fontana is up for best actor in a musical at the Tonys, alongside castmates Lilli Cooper and Sarah Stiles for best featured actress, Andy Grotelueschen for best featured actor, Robert Horn for best book of a musical, Scott Ellis for direction of a musical, Denis Jones for choreography, Simon Hale for orchestrations and William Ivey Long for costumes.
Music and lyrics for the Tony-nominated original score are by David Yazbek, who took home the 2018 Tony in that category for his work on The Band’s Visit. Yazbek is something of a specialist at reshaping movies into stage musicals, earning previous Tony nominations for The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. His current projects include a stage version of The Princess Bride for Disney Theatrical Productions.
The seven tracks available to listen to below include the Tootsie Overture; “What’s Gonna Happen,” sung by Stiles as Michael’s neurotic co-dependent ex, Sandy Lester; “I Won’t Let You Down,” the anthem of female solidarity with which Dorothy aces her Broadway audition; the second-act opener “Jeff Sums It Up,” in which Grotelueschen, in the role of Michael’s roommate (played onscreen by Bill Murray), offers his sardonic commentary on events up to that point.
Also among the preview numbers is “Gone, Gone, Gone,” sung by Cooper as Dorothy’s musical co-star and friend — and Michael’s unwitting love interest (played by Jessica Lange in the film); “This Thing,” in which John Behlmann, as Dorothy’s hunky dumb male co-star Max Van Horn, declares his improbable love for her; and “Talk to Me Dorothy,” in which Michael turns to his alter ego for answers.
See the track list below.
Overture
What’s Gonna Happen
Jeff Sums It Up
Gone, Gone, Gone
This Thing – This Thing
Talk To Me Dorothy
I Won’t Let You Down
