BWW Interviews: FULL MONTY Team Lets It Go!

In a lively, funny, often piquant conversation cast and creative team members from Maine State Music Theatre's The Full Monty convened on June 10 to talk with Broadway World in the first of this summer's highly successful talkback series, A Peek Behind the Curtain. The audience was delighted to have the opportunity to meet director, Donna Drake, stars Peter Matthew Smith, Amanda Rose, MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and Outreach Sales Manager Katie White. The discussion focused on the show's appeal, its message, and, of course, on the show stopping strip finale.

Drake began by talking about how she builds the excitement and sentiment throughout the show until the final curtain where the six steel workers do go "the full monty." "What is wonderful to watch is the journey of these steel workers," she said. "What do they know about 'take it off - shake it baby' or about being sexy strippers? They are just ordinary guys, and you root for them. You want them to go all the way and prove they are worthy." Clark commented that he loved the way Drake and the cast "conveyed the abject awkwardness of the initial undressing in the living room scene. She talked about how the play begins with a big strip number by a professional stripper at Giordano's club, "a gorgeous man whom you want to see naked, and that sets the tone and loosens up the audience; it defines the journey."

Peter Matthew Smith, who plays Jerry Lukowski, said that he thinks as a straight male seeing that first scene with the stripper, "You think, do I want to be watching this show right now, but after that, you meet the main characters and realize they are normal guys. You think, 'Are they really going to do this?' You start to buy into the whole premise." Smith also acknowledged the "adult script," but said that both in Brunswick, Maine, and in Lancaster, where the show had previously played, audiences seem to love play, and that here in Brunswick they were able to restore some of the language cuts that might not have played as well in Pennsylvania.

Asked if he thought the times and context for the play had changed since its had first been performed (under his predecessor) at MSMT in 2006, Clark said he felt that "society has probably not changed as fast as we would like it to with regard to some of the play's issues," which include nudity, homosexuality, and swear words. But he stressed that this was not what their production was about. "This is a great tale about human beings and their struggles."

Drake continued the theme: "Terrence McNally's book is pure genius. He has done half my work for me. The script is beautifully written, heartfelt, honest, and you identify. Add the layer of David Yazbek's music, and the whole experience becomes very real. We all share the same heart. We want to love, be loved, do well by our children. We try to get a little slice of happiness."

Rose, who plays Pam Lukowski, Jerry's divorced wife and mother of their son, said her character undergoes an arc of change as the play progresses. "At first she just wants Jerry to pay her the child support he owes and to do things in what she continued 'the right way.' She wants him to grow up and get his life together, but by the end of the play she has grown more open-minded. She realizes their child is the most important thing and that both of them are doing what they can for him"

Smith talked about how natural the onstage nakedness seems to the cast. "As actors we change our clothes all the time around each other. You get comfortable in your own skin, no matter your size or shape. It doesn't matter to us anymore that we have to be naked in front of you because acting is baring your soul, and in this case nudity is pretty much the same thing. It's not embarrassing; it's just the human body. Everyone is naked at some point." The actual moment of going the "full monty" is staged with the use of very clever lighting, so that what the audience and what the actors see is very different. Smith explains, "The lights come up behind us, and we are in silhouette, but we can see every face. It is such great fun to watch the reactions as we scan faces. We are at our most naked moment, yet we can see everyone's enjoying it. It's awesome!"

The panel and audience got to share a laugh about this whole process when an audience member queried them about the wardrobe malfunction at the second preview. Clark explained the near "disaster." "The men wear white boxers over red G-strings which are fastened with velcro. Jay [Jayson Elliott] realized that the velcro had come unfastened under the boxers, so he hurried off stage, adjusted it and came back on just in time. It was definitely not planned! After the performance I asked Jay what he was thinking at that moment, and he said all that went through his head was that 'this isn't going to end well.' Yet, somehow it did. That is why we love live theatre," Clark concluded. "It points out that we are flying without a safety net."

But that is the magic of their profession Rose points out. "Somehow, even it is at the last minute, everyone pulls together to make it happen," she says, recalling her first MSMT experience in Swing years ago when an actress came up voiceless for a couple performances, and an intern had to sing the role while she mimed it onstage.

White, who is the newest addition to MSMT's staff, agreed that what makes her outreach-marketing post so exciting is that she is working with an art form that is live. "You can't take it back. It is a whole different animal, but I feel I belong here, and I find it thrilling."

The mention of interns segued into conversation about MSMT's signature program for aspiring young theatrical professionals. Clark called the intern program "the core of this company," and he waxed eloquent about their contributions. "This morning they began their day in a seminar with Donna, and they are also in rehearsal for our next show Sister Act. Then in the evening they sang at three restaurants, sang during intermission at the performance, then rehearsed Fame until midnight. And you know what? They get up tomorrow and do it all over again. I feel I owe them at least as much energy as I ask from them."

Drake, who enjoys working with these young actors, said she loves to teach acting to college age students not only here, but also in her post as a professor at New York's Pace University. "They are like sponges," she says. "They are hungry to learn everything they can. I feel that as a professional, who has been around for a while, I need to give back what I have learned. They deserve it. It's their turn to become professionals. I want to help them spread their wings and fly, to find the tools, to find their inner being." Asked about her method of teaching, she replies, "I am very nurturing. At Pace, everyone calls me "mama bear." I am also very spiritual. I direct my shows from a heart place. Actually, I am the one who learns. Teachers always learn from their students because these kids give back so much!"

Clark concurred. "These young theatre people will have an experience here they will remember for the rest of their lives."

Photo Courtesy MSMT, Holly Landis, photographer.

To post a comment, you must register and login.