BWW Reviews: The Fulton's FULL MONTY Goes All The Way Into Audience Hearts

In 1997, Brits and Americans alike fell in love with a movie about some unemployed blue collar guys with no job prospects but so much heart you could hear the song from DAMN YANKEES in the background if you closed your eyes. It was no wonder that Terrence McNally managed to get a musical of it on stage by 2000. In his Americanized version, the unemployed were steelworkers in Buffalo, true representations of average Americans who couldn't catch a break. Nominated for... well, pretty much everything... it rightly won a Drama Desk Award for outstanding music for David Yazbek's memorable work. Though you might not name all the songs in the show if you haven't seen it, chances are you've heard "Breeze Off the River," which has had radio airplay, and "Let It Go" - no, not the song of the same title from a certain Disney movie. When you hear them, you know them.

Director Donna Drake has staged THE FULL MONTY at the Fulton Theatre, and it's as big, brash, and brassy as six guys from Buffalo, their friends, and their families can make it. It isn't a pretty show full of dancing princesses with fairy wings - it's rough, gritty, real, and, like the above-mentioned DAMN YANKEES and other musicals about tough, scrappy losers, it's got people you can love. Yes, even when they're a group of out-of-shape, beer-drinking, unemployed steelworkers who have decided to outdo the Chippendales at male stripping. The title, of course, refers to why the guys, billing themselves as the strip team "Hot Metal," claim they're more exciting than the better-looking Chippendales - they're going to take it all off. Maybe. If they don't chicken out, which they're doing pretty rapidly.

Peter Matthew Smith is Jerry, the divorced dad with a child support problem and an ex-wife who's remarried someone who'd be happy to separate him from his son, Nathan (Austin Nedrow). He's probably the most in-shape of his assembled crew, ranging from the pigeon-chested Malcolm (Chuck Ragsdale) to the aging Horse (Kingsley Leggs), who fears a total strip will reveal that certain strongly held beliefs about African-American men aren't always true.

Along the way, Jerry, his sidekick Dave (Jayson Elliot) and company learn some truths about themselves and others - that you do what you've got to do for the people you love; that people of other social classes, races, and sexual orientations aren't the enemy; and that just maybe their biggest obstacles in life are themselves.

The main cast of would-be exotic dancers - Smith, Ragsdale, Leggs, Elliot, Jonathan Rayston, and Michael Austin - are uniformly excellent actors, although in an ideal world most of them, indeed, are not meant to be paid as male strippers. But they're by no means the only fine cast. Frequent Fulton performer David Girolmo plays Reg, the union steward who tries out as a stripper but has two left feet, with some delightful pratfalls (as does Austin, who's trying to dance up walls unsuccessfully), while Sandy Rosenberg, last seen at the Fulton in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, owns the show as Jeanette, the retired small-time performer who takes over as rehearsal pianist, dance coach, and everything else she can waltz her way into as the boys get their show together.

Amanda Rose shines as Pam, Jerry's ex-wife, who clearly means the best for everyone, but whose efforts to help their son cause Jerry pain, while Fulton veteran Charis Leos is great fun as Georgie, Dave's rowdy but equally well-meaning wife, who can't understand why Dave is distancing himself from her.

While "Breeze Off the River" is possibly the best-known number, and it's performed gloriously by Smith, there are other great musical moments in this production. A real audience-pleaser is the cheerful "Big Ass Rock," an ode to the joys of friendship based on how friends would help friends off themselves. The opening of the second act features "Jeanette's Showbiz Number," a glorious and hysterical tribute to Jeanette's former career, recalling her days with Buddy Greco, Stan Kenton, and playing the piano with broken fingers after a run-in with Sinatra. Most of the Hot Metal gang help her out by voicing their fears about their show, in an ensemble routine that the audience could watch cheerfully for several more minutes. And, of course, there's "Let It Go," Hot Metal's stage strip number.

Will the guys go the full monty at the local strip club? It's really up to the audience to guess, as there's nothing showing on stage that's going to get the Fulton raided (sorry to break the news, in case you were hoping). There is indeed what amounts to partial nudity - if you're uncomfortable seeing men in very abbreviated thongs from all directions, this probably is not for you. This writer's adult female guest was made somewhat uncomfortable by the amount of skin on stage. If you have an issue with the "some men should not wear Speedos" problem, remember that these are not male models stripping, but actors chosen to resemble average rather than ideal humans. It's a show about hearts, not parts; this isn't about a visual aesthetic - far from it.

Audience members might also want to be aware that the dancers of Hot Metal wind up learning acceptance of others throughout the show; there are some stereotypes of various groups bandied about in the first act that the men work their way past in the second act.

Expect to be delighted by this production; you won't be disappointed by coming in with high expectations. Drake is gifted both as a director and a choreographer, and this is the right cast in the right show at the right time. Not surprisingly, the show is going on to Maine State Music Theatre after closing in Lancaster. But it's a long drive to Maine if you miss it here, so catch it if you can.

At the Fulton through May 16. Tickets and information are available at 717-397-7425, or visit www.thefulton.org.