Maxwell Caulfield became a star with full-frontal nudity in ENTERTAINING MR. SLOAN at the Cherry Lane.
I didn't see him in that (though BRAD DAVIS left nothing to the imagination when he replaced Caulfield).
But when Caulfied reprised the role at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, he seemed very self-conscious and concerned with hiding his "naughty bits". So the interview about how relaxed he is with stage nudity strikes me as disengenuous (though MC with just his hands over his junk is still something to see).
Back in the 60's or 70's there was a Broadway comedy called "You Know I Can't Hear You when the Water is Running." The premise was that a producer and director are trying to get a mainstream actor to go full frontal and he doesn't want to do it. Of course, at that time, there was no such thing as nudity in a mainstream play, and there was, in fact, no nudity in the show.
At the matinee that my parents attended, some lady was so horrified that she stormed out right at the beginning. My parents were as amused by her as by the play.
Audrey
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
"Kost is partially topless in Cabaret? I really don't remember that."
There was when I saw it last month. When Kost is introducing herself to Cliff, she takes her hand off of her bath-robe-ish thing and one side falls down and her breast is visible for several seconds.
When Julia Roberts was asked why she doesn't do nude scenes she said because she does movies not documentaries. I believe the same rule would apply for any actor on a Broadway stage although unlike Ms. Roberts I doubt few of them would have any say on the matter.
I just remembered reading about a play in the late 1960's or early 70's about a guy who kidnapped a woman and tied her, naked, to a chair. The actor playing the woman spent the whole play in the altogether, although she was visible only from the back. I can't remember the play or the cast, except that I think the female actor's name was Sally something-or-other.
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
Do we mean Broadway or Off-etc? Because certainly nudity was more common off (and off off) Broadway in the 60s and 70s than ever on.
AHLiebross. Pretty sure that was Terrence McNally's 1968 Off-Broadway play Sweet Eros back when he was still firmly in his "experimental" phase. The actress was Sally Kirkland. Wiki claims that it made her the first woman to be fully nude in a "legit" New York stage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Eros
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune Equus Take Me Out Killer Joe Oh! Calcutta! HAIR Naked Boys Singing Streetcar Named Desire @ New York Theatre Workshop
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson