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Curtain Calls XTRA

By John Quinn

Review: 'The Full Monty'
Six brave men do more than simply shuffle off to Buffalo

When you're a group of men beyond your prime, it takes, well, cajones to bare all in front of pretty much your entire home town.
But that's what six long-unemployed steelworkers do in "The Fully Monty," the musical comedy based on the hit movie that's now playing at Detroit's Fisher Theatre.
With good-paying jobs hard to find, best friends Jerry Lukowski and Dave Bukatinsky are stunned to discover that a Chippendales-like troupe earns $50,000 each night they strut their stuff in the economically-strapped city of Buffalo, New York. So the two decide to throw caution – and their pride – to the wind and assemble a group of strippers with the goal of earning enough money to ease their financial struggles.
For Jerry, however, it's much more serious than that: If he doesn't come up with back child support money, the divorced father will lose joint custody of his 12-year-old son.
Things don't look promising for the enterprising duo, however; the men who audition seemingly have little to offer the women of Buffalo other than a few good laughs. Dave is overweight, "Horse" is getting up in years, Harold is thin and proper, Malcolm has no experience with women (other than his aged, domineering mother) and Ethen has no noticeable talent except to shock women with what he has between his legs.
But "The Full Monty" is not really a story about stripping, so none of that really matters. Instead, this is a heartwarming story about friendship, self-image and the drive to succeed – and in that regard, playwright Terrence McNally hits the nail on the head.
Where the production somewhat loses steam – at least in THIS production – is with David Yazbek's music.
Yazbeck won the 2001 Drama Desk award for his music, but at best, it's only serviceable. Few tunes are memorable or catchy enough to recall five minutes after the show closes. His lyrics, however, do help move the story along, and occasionally, they are quite creative. (YOU try rhyming with 'testosterone' – and doing it without a groan!)
Theatergoers brave enough to abandon their TVs on election night were treated to an entertaining, yet uneven evening of theater. Some performers were on their marks (such as Jeremiah Zinger, Joe Coots, Eric Thorne, Ann Burnette Mathews, Troy Scarborough and Penny Larsen); a few simply showed up and sleepwalked through their roles. And the singing voices? Well, some were fine, while a few didn't seem to gel well with the others.
Eye-candy lovers of the male and female persuasions, however, vocalized their appreciation for Cannon Starnes, the only "real" stripper in the show. Not surprisingly, this hot number once appeared off-Broadway in "Naked Boys Singing"!
"The Full Monty" Presented Tuesday through Sunday at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, through Nov. 21. Tickets: $30.50 – $68. 313-872-1000. www.nederlanderdetroit.com.
The Bottom Line: An entertaining, yet unremarkable production that is not up to the standards Fisher Theatre ticket holders expect.

Review: 'The Shape of Things'
Dysfunctional relationships "shape" a grim little play

The phenomenon is so common, its principle is the title of a musical: "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." But Detroit-born playwright Neil LaBute isn't exploring the humor of controlling relationships in "The Shape of Things," now playing at Planet Ant Theatre in Hamtramck. Writing towards a gritty realism, LaBute forces his characters to confront issues as basic as: How far would you go for love? How far would you go for art? What price might you pay?
We Purple Heart veterans in the Love Wars can sympathize with nerdy Adam, an English Lit major at a backwater university. He meets Evelyn, a militantly artistic grad student, and is flattered when she shows interest. Thoroughly smitten, Adam doesn't notice at first that Evelyn is making a lot of demands on him. New haircut, new clothes, new nose, new friends – she's transforming him pretty much at will. What ensues is a gut wrenching twist of emotions betrayed.
"The Shape of Things" is a character driven play, and its success hinges on whether we "buy into" those characters. Consider them caricatures, and we can't suspend disbelief. I find that director John Maxwell's fine effort with a talented cast is not enough to make these characters real. Adam is just the ultimate pushover and Evelyn bitchy beyond belief. One can't grasp what he sees in her. Is it just the sex, or does this guy have absolutely no spine whatsoever?
In their defense, as this play is richly laced with quotes from Oscar Wilde, I offer one more: "The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic." While LaBute absolutely DARES me to describe this show as "interesting and different" (you had to be there), I'll refrain.
The techniques by which an actor prepares a role continue to evolve. These sharp, "you are there" plays take on their sizzle when the actors can throw themselves whole-heartedly into a scene. But realistic scenes are still scenes – conversations between characters must still be heard by the audience, and lines spoken to the upstage wall must still be shouted so they can be heard in the last row. The match between play and Planet Ant's performance space is just about perfect; so why does our attention start to wander? Shall we chalk it up to technique, or to the inaccessibility of the characters?
"The Shape of Things" Presented Thursday through Sunday at Planet Ant, 2357 Caniff, Hamtramck, through Nov. 28. Tickets: $10 – $15. 313-365-4948. www.planetant.com.
The Bottom Line: Contrived characters blunt the realism of the emotionally charged plot.

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