The department is putting on The Full Monty, it opens this week and is almost done. I'd heard the music and thought it was maybe almost decent for a musical of a movie (it was nominated for Best Musical the year The Producers won all the Tony's).
Last night I was at one of the rehearsals. Dress rehearsal, I believe, is tonight or tomorrow.
My first thought was that the book was written by a gay guy trying to imagine what it must be like to be straight. All the characters are terribly stereotyped, which would be OK because it's that sort of musical, but it's not just their characters, it's their lines, their thoughts, none of them does anything but fit into their stereotype.
It also feels hideously dated, even though the movie was 97 and the musical was 02. The whole thing feels like 1993, and that's not just our show, it's the script. It's got this Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus gender roles of the early 90's feel to it that is really tactless.
I don't know what the original movie's like, but this seems really immature. "My wife will like me again if I dance naked!" "Dancing naked, that will restore my dignity!" Please. The whole show is just a lead up to the final scene and makes the rest of the play seem unnecessary.
I think you could get a decent musical out of some of the songs, if you re-wrote the book. Maybe if it focused on fewer guys and gave them a more compelling reason to have to come to terms with their physical perceptions, then maybe you'd have something, but the show seems to be preoccupied with the novelty of straight guys taking off their clothes.
I'm a chick, and I do not see the appeal.
Of course, there was an incident during the show... One of the girls appears in the men's restroom of a strip club. She's been costumed in a black leather mini skirt. The stage direction calls for her to use the urinal. For some reason, it didn't occur to the girl to wear "protective" underwear and the urinals were built too high for her.
The whole audience was treated to her ass either because she didn't care (likely) or because she didn't have the sense to realise maybe the whole audience didn't need to see all of her butt.
When The Boy asked one of his carpenters to work on cutting the urinal stands down to make them shorter, and told the reason, these guys went nuts. "Her ass!? Why didn't you call us, we would've come and watched!" Guys, it's an ass. It's white, pasty, and sorta vaguely roundish. What the hell is the big deal?
I will admit to not being comfortable enough to get naked in front of perfect strangers, but I think there are other just as valid ways to take risks and to be daring without taking your clothes off. I suppose this could be a compelling musical; the fact that it's been ripped off several times by other movies -Calendar Girls- and by people in real life suggests that there's something to it, but I just think the musical misses the point.