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Stripped-down stage play still shines
Feeling as deflated as the U.S. economy? Worried your dollar might soon be worth less than the dinar? Forget about your troubles and come enjoy someone else's at Media Theatre's production of The Full Monty. A musical about the blue-collar male literally and figuratively stripped bare, this 2000 nine-time Tony nominee, based on the 1997 British movie, will charm the pants off you.
Relocated from Sheffield, England, to Buffalo, N.Y., the story otherwise remains about the same: A bevy of unemployed steelworkers get inspired by their wives' enthusiasm for a Chippendales-style men's strip show passing through town. And why would the women pay to see their doughy husbands and neighbors shake their booties? Because, unlike the pros, they're willing to go "the full Monty" and take it all off.
The steel-toed workboots on The Full Monty's feet - which are, in turn, planted on unsteady economic ground - keep this musical from being simply a light, though saucy, entertainment. Terrence McNally's book and David Yazbeck's lyrics aren't afraid to let the men vent their anger and impotence (psychological . . . mostly).
Jerry Lukowski (Timothy Quinlan) asks in "Scrap," as he and his friends sit helplessly in a union meeting, "What do I want? . . . I want to know how I became a loser when I used to be a man." In another song, Jerry and his pal Dave counsel a former coworker on the many ways they can help him commit suicide. Clearly, for these guys, there's nowhere to go but up.
Elizabeth Stump's set, with its grimy factory windows and featureless brick walls, could be on consignment from Flashdance - which, considering that the show is as much a male version of that film as it is an adaptation of its English namesake, makes perfect sense.
Director Tonda Hannum gets mixed results from her cast, some of whom - the principals, mostly - are simply better actors than others. For example, Artie Sievers' humble Malcolm MacGregor adds a dash of sweetness to the hardscrabble environment, but Billy Sarna's pro dancer, Buddy "Keno" Walsh, is an amateurish bust; it's great to watch him pirouette while ripping off his clothes, but once he opens his mouth, the fantasy ends.
Still, Ramon Galindo's merry choreography keeps The Full Monty's spirits afloat, distracting us from the sad conditions that took the shirts off these men's backs.
