When The Full Monty hit the big screen in 1997, open-mouthed women everywhere rejoiced in the audacity of its role-reversing plot. Men, for a welcome change, were selling their sexuality to make a living – and they were going the whole hog. Fifteen years later, an award-winning team, including director Daniel Evans and gifted producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers, are taking it to the stage. Dublin won’t know what hit it.
As well as being a laugh-a-minute, the show captures the economic, social and cultural environment of Sheffield, a largely working class city, with grit and wit. The story follows six jobless ex-steelworkers desperate to strike it rich performing Chippendale-style stripteases to past-their-prime women. The band of six men, no spring chickens themselves, go to hilarious lengths to choreograph a show, awkwardly shuffling and undressing to soundtracks that suggest they are, perhaps, ‘hotter’ and ‘sexier’ than they really are.
Inexperienced, clueless, bold-as-brass and gutsy, they eventually manage to win over small pub crowds, even if they shock and alienate family members along the way. The sextet (pun unavoidable) works up to the big one, which is – of course – ‘The Full Monty.’ The exchanges in rehearsals prior to the ‘big show’ are uproarious, particularly as each gives a reasonable and rational explanation why they feel they cannot do it. Do they get over it and bare all? Even on stage?
If you’re planning to catch an eye-full of the, ahem, live show – and you want comfort and ease out of your trip to the Fair City, why not try our four-star apartments in Ringsend, which is just a stone’s throw from the Grand Canal’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre. Our soundproofed windows will block out the screams, jeers and howls of the women who are going to the show on the night you’re not. We promise. Click here to see why staying in a cosy apartment you can make your own for a night or two can be better than a hotel.