While most movies and shows represent women as the sexy eye candy, The Full Monty does quite the opposite.
A dozen red thongs and two standing ovations later, the female (and male) audience went crazy for the six steelworkers-turned-strippers in last night's opening performance at Eisenhower auditorium.
Within 10 seconds into the show's beginning, a bump-and-grinding male was in nothing more than a leopard-print thong and proceeded to pull a cell phone out of his, um, bulge, and take a call.
After the opening "gift," the story started to unfold with the introduction of Jerry Lukowski, a disillusioned steelworker who has been unemployed for eight months.
Jerry desperately wants to get a job and make enough money to pay the child support to see his 12-year-old son, Nathan.
We then meet his fellow steelworker cronies, who, like Jerry, are in dire need for cash. The first song, "Scrap," was hilarious, as all the guys were venting about their unemployment status: "I don't know how I got to be a loser, when I used to be a man, all I know is the future will include another beer."
Jerry gets the idea to organize a one-time-only strip show to get custody of his son and to help his friends.
Here's the scoop on the steelworkers: They're all shapes and sizes, all ages and almost all naked.
When Jerry and his friends held auditions, Horse, another steelworker, gave a fantastic performance in "Big Black Man," where he joked about the implications of his name and who he really was, while Dave and Harold sang "You Rule My World" in honor of their private parts.
As the six men tried to get ready for the show in secrecy from their wives and family members, the audience saw them struggle feeling self-conscious and being uncoordinated.
The play successfully juggled serious issues with hoot-n-holler humor. While each man struggled through serious issues like suicide and weight problems, the crude (but tasteful) jokes in each "strip" scene along with the hip choreography and rock music made the show a smashing success.
The last scene of the play was unforgettable -- the "Hot Metal" strip show. In order to sell tickets, Jerry promised the audience they would see "the full monty."
During the beginning of the show, each guy was dressed in a police uniform and initial frustration made each move like a zombie.
Once they all got into it, it was a wonderful singing and dancing spectacle that left everyone wanting more.
Although each actor may have ended up in "the full monty," it was artfully choreographed so that scenery was in the way of anything X-rated.
All in all, it was not just the stripping, but the singing, dancing and quirky lines that left myself, and the audience, wanting to go back for a second night.
