Nudity on Stage- Page 1

[ZoeTheGoat]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 10:19pm

The best the worst the weird?

Burning (Off-Broadway) had the most I've seen.

Updated On: 10/24/12 at 10:19 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 10:29pm

It was all very effective in THE BLUE ROOM. Most times it's just gratuitous though, and takes you out of the moment.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 10:31pm

TAKE ME OUT had a virtual Whitman's Sampler of full frontal nudity. The play had something to do about baseball as I recall....

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 10:38pm

I remember as a teen, reading a small piece int he Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker of the original off-Broadway staging of Love! Valour! Compassion! all based around audience reaction to how hung one of the actors was...

[Caring Soul]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 10:45pm

Way back in the seventies (before most of the commenters here were born, I'm sure) there was a musical called "Let My People Come" by the son of the gossip columnist Earl Wilson. It was quite shocking in its day featuring all manner of simulated sex acts and nudity. Don't think it lasted very long, but it was indeed memorable for obvious reasons.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 10:54pm

It does have a cast album, though I admit I've only played it a few times (and the album was up for a Grammy!) and I believe it ran for around 2 years, as well as numerous regional productions, but now seems to be completely forgotten. )Oh Calcutta is still a punchline, but of course it ran longer and was something of a cultural phenomenon).

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 10:58pm

And I shoulda just checked Wiki to see how long Come ran:

"Let My People Come is the title of an explicit musical about sex which ran from January 8, 1974 to July 5, 1976 in New York City, at The Village Gate in Greenwich Village. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1974 for Best Original Cast Album. It enjoyed long runs in Philadelphia at Grendel's Lair Cabaret Theatre for 10 years and in Toronto for 8 years at the Basin Street Cabaret Theater Other companies include: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Madrid, London, Paris, Sydney, New Zealand, Maseru [Lesotho]. It became the longest running musical in Canada and in Philadelphia and did two National tours in Canada. Subtitled "A Sexual Musical". The show opened on Broadway on July 7, 1976 at the Morosco Theatre and closed on October 2, 1976 after 108 performances.


In November, 2011 the production made a comeback in Chicago at the Stage 773 Theater to good crowds and favorable reviews."

Apparently us Canadians really liked it... (Probably why I so easily came across a copy of the cast album in a used record store).

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 11:23pm

There is, if i remember, some sort of grisly story about the creator of Let My People Come committing some horrid sex crimes and viciously stalking a woman, if I remember. It was a few years after the show closed, but it really sheds a darkly ironic light on the fun, free-love shenanigans of the musical.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it have some sordid history?

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 11:24pm

Wasn't he first male penile acting in THE CHANGING ROOM?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 11:49pm

Googled and found the Let My People Come stalking story. Very SVU.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 11:53pm

darque, that sounds oddly familiar, but a quick search didn't bring up anything. Queer Music Heritage does have a LOT of photos, including the program, here http://www.queermusicheritage.us/gm-letmy.html

And youtube seems to have most of the cast album as well as the recent Chicago production for anyone really curious...

Apparently there's a new, more interactive "Party" version (...) http://www.lmpcparty.com/lmpcparty/LMPC-PARTY%21.html

[Scripps2]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 5:34am

So "come" wasn't spelt with a "u" in the 70s?!

[algy]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 7:58am

Spymonkey's Oedi**** (which toured the UK earlier this year) had the funniest use of nudity I've seen on stage - in a gag about Sphinxes...

http://www.spymonkey.co.uk/oedi****/index.htm

I can't believe it autofiltered it! It's Oedipus-sy (without the hypen) and the same applies to the email address...

The show was possibly the funniest thing I've seen this year - and definitely the funniest greek tragedy I've ever seen! Updated On: 10/25/12 at 07:58 AM

[once a month]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 8:02am

I still have the record, signed by several cast members, where-as Oh! Calcutta bored the crap out of me.

Party the nudity was predominant throughout, as was Take Me Out and Love, Valor.

Updated On: 10/25/12 at 08:02 AM

[Quiche2]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 8:17am

Naked Boys Singing

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 9:29am

Eric, it's funny how the picture of the cast album says "Now Available For The First Time By Mail". Did they send it in a brown paper wrapper so that married men could secretly listen to it in the bathroom?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 9:33am

"I remember as a teen, reading a small piece int he Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker of the original off-Broadway staging of Love! Valour! Compassion! all based around audience reaction to how hung one of the actors was..."

As most will clearly recall, the member of the cast who made the biggest impression during the nude scene was Justin Kirk.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 9:51am

Justin Kirk was definitely impressive, but I recall Randy Becker taking top (ahem) honors.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 9:54am

BENT. When the naked Nazi strutted onto stage atthe beginning I was shocked. Wasn't necessary nudity, but it got the audience atention.

EQUUS, of course.

[newintown]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 9:55am

Randy Becker was, indeed, the boy they were talking about about, although Kirk was very cute back then. Heck, even John B Hickey was cute back then.

I saw Let My People Come once; a pretty embarrassing experience - tacky, cheap, exploitative, puerile. But I don't think Naked Boys Singing is any better. I mean, I enjoy a good nude scene as much as anyone, but a whole evening of nakedness for the sake of nakedness alone? That's for people who haven't progressed past the 5-year-old "playing doctor" phase.

[Owen22]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 9:57am

Now that she's the legit soprano heiress apparent of Broadway we forget Kelli O'Hara caused the only sensation of the ill advised Wildhorn musical "Dracula" by showing us her boobies.



Updated On: 10/25/12 at 09:57 AM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 10:03am

I'll always remember Jessica Tandy dropping the apple she was peeling when she saw Maxwell Caulfield lying naked on the sand.

[newintown]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 10:05am

By the way, there is already a pretty long... I mean extensive thread on this topic.
Who Have You Seen?

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 10:09am

Don't know if it was true or not, but I remember hearing that Vanessa Redgrave didn't always get naked in "Orpheus Descending"; that it depended on whether or not she "got there" each night.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/25/12 at 10:36am

Yeah, Randy Becker took all the honors in the endowment department. At the time LVC was running,there was some blind item in some now-discontinued rag that commented something to the effect of "What leading man in a current show is unsuccessfully pursuing a very handsome co-cast member?" Anyone want to venture a guess?