After many quiet months of pandemic life, Milwaukee’s fall theater season opens with a “bang” as Skylight Music Theatre launches the Broadway musical, The Full Monty. The Tony Award-winning musical is especially relevant today, as it deals with people coping with hard times. Long-term unemployment? Difficulty paying the bills? Struggling with weight gain? Feeling isolated and lonely? The Full Monty contains all of that, and more. The show emphasizes the importance of friends and family in making it through tough times together.
The musical is based on a popular 1997 film about British miners. It transfers the action to steelworkers in a small U.S. town. Many of the men are employed at a factory that shut down 18 months prior, and they worry about their ability to provide for their families. (Okay, we know that the plant must have female workers, too, but this story is about the guys.)
One night, a group of unemployed husbands sees how the town’s women go crazy over an appearance by the world-famous Chippendale male strippers, and an idea starts to take shape. Would it be possible for the steelworkers to make some quick money the same way? Not so fast. The guys have to convince each other, form a group and practice in secret before they’re ready to announce their intentions to the world.
The Full Monty is a feel-good show with mass appeal (recommended for audiences age 15 and older). What it offers is a chance to sit back and have a good laugh – and isn’t that something we all need right now?
The Skylight cast delivers in spades. One of the funniest scenes involves an open audition for amateur strippers. The men come off as more buffoonish than buff, despite the assistance of a seasoned rehearsal pianist (a role played with hilarious gusto by Jan Neuberger). It all seems hopeless until an old geezer shows up and displays some real style. In the song, “Big Black Man,” Lee Palmer (as “Horse”) dazzles with his fancy footwork and sublime shimmies. This showstopping number is one reason The Full Monty played on Broadway for two years.
Playwright Terrence McNally makes the stakes particularly high for the men. A money-making strip show would allow unemployed Jerry Lukowski (Dan DeLuca) to pay back child support to his ex-wife Pam (Christie Burgess) and get access to his young son, Nathan (Abram Nelson). The other men view the money as a way of boosting their self-esteem.
All three actors portraying the Lukowskis shine in their respective roles. Abram Nelson is completely believable as a kid trying to cope with the break-up of his parents’ marriage. There’s palpable chemistry between father and son. As the dad, DeLuca nails the show’s most multi-faceted character. He is charming but also immature and occasionally clueless. He can’t find the words to tell his son how much he means to him.
Mainly, the show’s overall focus is the finale. One is left constantly wondering: Will they, or won’t they, go “full monty” (a British slang term for stripping completely nude)? Theatergoers will have to find out for themselves. One can reveal that, at the finale, the audience is whooping, whistling, and hollering at the enthusiastic performance given by these amateurs. (On opening night, the sound was muffled slightly by the fact that everyone in the audience was wearing a mask. This is part of the theater company’s Covid protocols.)
In a musical about men (and their insecurities), the cast of 20 also contains plenty of women. In addition to Pam, Jerry’s wife, there are equally memorable appearances by Karen Estrada and Janet Metz. They portray ride-or-die wives (respectively) of the paunchy Dave Butinsky (Nathan Marinen) and insecure Harold Nichols (Zach Thomas Woods). Metz, an actor with multiple Broadway credits, brings down the house with her musical number, “Life with Harold.”
Jerry, Dave, Harold and Horse form the ragtag team of unemployed strippers, along with Malcolm MacGregor (Joey Chelius) and Ethan Girard (Jordon Arrasmith, who also appeared in Skylight’s production of Newsies. )
Part of the show’s appeal rests in the upbeat pop tunes of composer David Yazbek. Full Monty was Yazbek’s initial foray into musical theater, followed by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005), The Band’s Visit (another Tony Award winner, in 2017), and Tootsie (2019). The Full Monty cast delivers their songs with professional polish and snappy choreography by director James Gray. In the orchestra pit, music director David Bonofiglio gets the most out of a handful of band members.
The show is further enhanced by an understated set design by Erik D. Diaz. It features tall, corrugated steel panels that move in between scenes. Lighting design by Noele Stollmack sets the mood, whether it’s in the closed factory or a glimmering nightclub. Costume designer Shima Orans runs the gamut from everyday casual wear (for the unemployed workers) to a glitzy gown (for the piano player), upscale chic attire (for wife Vicki Nichols), and, of course, some scanty thong underwear for the finale.
There is much more theater on its way to Milwaukee this fall, but the celebratory mood struck by The Full Monty seems a perfect way to perk up the performing arts scene after a long, dry spell. The actors appear to be having a blast in the Cabot Theater, and they no doubt welcome everyone to come join the fun.
