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The Full Monty
Malvern Theatres
**** TRANSFERRING a
movie as popular, gritty and funny as
The Full Monty
to stage is no easy feat, in fact its film screenwriter Simon Beaufoy
himself admitted it had been "difficult". But Beaufoy has done a wonderful job of taking
the most memorable scenes from the film and condensing them into this
extremely funny yet sentimental piece of theatre. For those unaware of the story, it follows a
group of unemployed desperate men in Sheffield amid the demise of the
steel industry, who train to become a male strip troupe to earn some
money. Although there's the comedy of this unlikely
group of strippers putting on their first show, the script also tackles
grittier topics of how the recession has affected personal relationships
in all of their lives, depression and homosexuality. At the heart of this
theatre show are all those bits we love. The dancing in the dole queue
to Hot Stuff,
the awkward rehearsals and the beautifully choreographed finale; but
there's also plenty of delightful surprises and special effects that
bring a few gasps. Taking on the lead role
is Footballer's Wives
and Hollyoaks
star Gary Lucy as likeable chancer Gaz, who goes to extreme lengths to
keep seeing his son Nathan. It's his first stage role and he does it well,
with a particularly impressive Northern accent for an Essex boy. An advantage of this play is that the touching
father and son storyline seems to be explored much more on stage than in
the film. Fraser Kelly, playing Gaz's son Nathan in the version I saw
(there's four young actors on the tour), stole the limelight at Malvern,
matched his adult colleagues with some fine acting. Joining Lucy and Kelly
are a well selected group of actors, all with charisma and charm,
including Andrew Dunn from Dinnerladies,
Brookside's Louis Emerick and
Coronation Street's
Rupert Hill. Martin Miller and Bobby Schofield make up the line-up
willing to bare all - and ladies, they do. It's a slick, thrilling
and well-crafted transfer to stage for
The Full Monty that thankfully keeps
the essence of the well-loved original. You won't be disappointed. To
14-11-15 Alison Brinkworth
09-11-15
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