Amber Ruffin Admits She Initially Didn’t Feel ‘Qualified’ to Write for Broadway (Exclusive)

Amber Ruffin is a veteran comedy writer, but even after nearly a decade churning out material for Late Night With Seth Meyers, it didn't quell the nagging feeling of inadequacy when she set out to write a Broadway musical. 

"When I got the chance to write Broadway shows, I thought, 'Oh, well, there's no way I'm qualified to do anything like this,'" Ruffin exclusively told The Messenger while hosting the Dramatists Guild Foundation Gala on Monday. 

This was despite the fact that she had spent the majority of her career writing for and performing in live theater. And yet, she got her stage adaptation of Some Like It Hot, which she co-wrote with Matthew López, to Broadway. The show earned 13 Tony Award nominations, including for Best Musical and one nod specifically for the book by López and Ruffin. 

"I'm greedy for laughs because I'm a joke guy," Ruffin told The Messenger of her process writing the musical comedy.

"And the same is true for theater and keeping the attention of the audience. Because you have to be a little greedy monster — and I am that. And I think that's where I shine, is that I'm impatient. And I want everyone's attention times a million the whole show."

In order to achieve that feat, the words have to be delivered and performed at the same caliber of — if not elevate — the writing itself. This is why one of Ruffin's most poignant reflections looking back on Some Like It Hot's run of just over a year at the Shubert Theatre is the powerhouse cast — including Tony Award winners Christian Borle and J. Harrison Ghee (who joined Alex Newell in being named the first openly nonbinary actors to earn Tonys). 

"I just think that those actors, man, they were nuts," the Amber Ruffin Show host said.

"Because that was my real first [experience] giving these lines to a Broadway performer. And they're super-performing them. You know, it's not just like another silly person. It's a person who has gone to school on top of school on top of school. So then they take your goofy little jokes, and they make them great. That's pretty cool."

As Some Like It Hot prepares to take its final bow, Ruffin remains as busy as ever as her revival of The Wiz makes its way around the world and lands at Broadway's Marquis Theatre in spring 2024.