Matthew López on ‘Some Like It Hot,’ Remaking ‘The Bodyguard’ and Directing the Gay Rom-Com ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’
Brent Lang Executive Editor As Matthew López prepared for the London debut of “The Inheritance,” his epic drama about the AIDS epidemic and its painful aftershocks, he was simultaneously outlining a first draft of “Some Like It Hot,” an effervescent re-imagining of the classic Billy Wilder film.
The two shows could not have been more radically different. But López enjoyed toggling between comedy and tragedy. “I like working in extremes,” he says. “I like working in different modes.” Plus, he thinks that both productions benefitted from their author’s double act. “I got to live in both worlds at once,” López argues. “One helped the other.
Doing the shows at the same time kept both projects in check. It prevented ‘The Inheritance’ from getting too dour and kept ‘Some Like It Hot’ from getting too lightweight.
It brought some gravity to ‘Some Like It Hot’ and some levity to ‘The Inheritance.'” Something worked. “The Inheritance” would go on to win four Tony Awards, including one for best play, after it opened on Broadway in 2019.
