The Full Monty, Mayfield Dinner Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
The guys we meet in The Full Monty are up against it.
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They’re unemployed steel workers in rustbelt Buffalo. And, as one points out, in the opening musical number “it’s a long night when you’re scrap…. It’s a slow town when you don’t know where to go.”
Edmonton can surprise you. The Full Monty is, remarkably, the second Broadway musical I’ve seen this past week with a big catchy 11 o’clock anthem called ‘Let It Go’. In Disney’s Frozen, at the Citadel, ‘Let It Go’ is a detachable global hit sung by ice royalty, an exiled queen with a terrible secret power. In The Full Monty, the charmer that’s running at the Mayfield in Kate Ryan’s funny and touching production, ‘Let It Go’ is the grand finale of the guys’ plan, born of blue-collar desperation, to make some much-needed cash … by forming a strip act for a one-night-only stand. Will they … let it (all) go?
Culled from an appealingly low-key 1997 Brit film comedy, the 25-year-old Broadway musical is the creation of all-star American playwright Terrence McNally and composer/lyricist David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). And it re-locates the cluster of jobless steelworkers — along with their anxiety and depression, their battered self-esteem as men, husbands, fathers, breadwinners — from the north of England to America.
A striking design (by Lieke den Bakker and Ivan Siemens) is on that Atlantic crossing. It locates the characters in a derelict factory of brick, dominated by a big tilted window through which Marr Schuurman’s videos give us glimpses of Buffalo ‘hoods and seasons. Gail Ksionzyk’s lighting, as you will discover later, is an important player, with a coup de thêâtre up its sleeve (OK, it doesn’t have sleeves).
It need hardly be said that the bummed-out fellas we meet, who self-identify as losers, aren’t obvious candidates for the dud-doffing bare-ass razzmatazz of showbiz. And Robin Calvert’s smartly un-slick choreography is all about figuring out how characters who are unemployed steelworkers not dancers dance if they happen to be in a musical.
The Full Monty, Mayfield Dinner Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.
There’s life to consider. The cheers of women, the new breadwinners having a girls’ night out at a Chippendales show, are a revelation to their desperate men. McNally’s script and Yabek’s songs, which range from rock to pop ballads to patter songs, sketch in the details, for some characters more fully than others. And Ryan’s cast fleshes out the individual dimensions (gee, I wish I’d worded that differently).
Anyhow, in order for The Full Monty to take hold of you and charm you, you have to fall a little in love with these these tough/fragile dudes. You have to want these underdog shleppers to triumph, as they struggle and resist the upending of their lives and open another beer in the middle of the day. And you really do, in Ryan’s production.
There are stakes. If Jerry (the engaging Michael Cox), the instigator and stage manager of the bright idea, doesn’t come up with some child-support dough soon, he’ll lose joint custody of his son Nathan (Will Brisbin). Their father-son scenes together are a wry and heart-tugging flip of the father-son dynamic: Jerry as the vulnerable supplicant and his kid as the adult. Both performances are excellent. Cox, possessor of supple musical theatre chops, has a wistfully reflective Yazbek ballad, “Breeze Off The River” (“I never feel like somebody somebody calls a father…”) that’s a highlight.
Jerry’s overweight best friend Dave (the winsome Daniel Williston) is paralyzed by body image, certain he’s seeing the end times for his marriage. Here’s an image that lingers: Dave, anxious about his upcoming debut as a stripper, wraps his midriff in Saran Wrap to lose weight fast. And there he is, sitting on the can tucking into a bag of chips. The power ballad ‘You Rule My World’, that gets passed from man to man, with different resonances, is Dave’s address to his own ample belly.
Michael Cox (centre) and the cast of The Full Monty, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.
The Full Monty, as you will suspect if you saw the sleeper hit movie, is its own oddball thing, an original mixture of raucous and melancholy, dark comedy and heart-felt regret. And Ryan’s production, strongly sung, gives full weight to this high-contrast palette; it’s underpinned by affection, not mockery. And it’s reflected in the performances under her direction. The musical’s funniest song is Jerry and Dave’s helpful duet of buddy support, ‘Big-Ass Rock’, on behalf of the sad-sack Malcolm (Ryan Maschke), who’s s trying to off himself at the time.
Let the recruitment for the new strip act Hot Metal begin. The audition scene is a hoot, hilarious and rueful. Gavin Hope as Noah (nickname: Horse) has a showbiz history, a rocking number “Big Black Man,” and a bad hip. Paul Cowling plays the class-conscious factory manager Harold who’s been concealing his own unemployment from an adoring wife (Christine Bandelow) he can’t afford to either support or lose. Cameron Chapman is the aspirational Ethan, who’s “always wanted to be a dancer (pause) but I can’t dance.” His particular endowment wins him an instant spot in Hot Metal. There’s a very funny cameo of a spectacularly inept stripper hopeful (Evan Dowling) wrestled to the ground by his own T-shirt.
Her deadpan comic performance as the jaded, seen-it-all rehearsal pianist, who cracks wise from the keyboard, marks the welcome return to the stage of Maureen Rooney. Her name-dropping song, “things could be better ‘round here,” is a winner.
Performances from the wives and the -ex’s — frustrated, exasperated by the male intransigence to take greeter jobs at Walmart — include stand-outs by Bandelow as the bourgie wife, Autumn-Joy Dames as Dave’s other half, and Rachel Bowron as Jerry’s ‘ex, the one with the child support ultimatum. And there’s a sort of Greek chorus of Furies, a a gaggle of scornful women, who criss-cross the stage from time to time as a power-walking gag, to terrify the strippers-to-be.
A first-rate band is an expectation at the Mayfield. And it’s fully met in The Full Monty (musical director Jennifer McMillan). The musical values and the sound quality are exemplary.
Which brings us to the big reveal. Will they chicken out? Will they go ‘the full monty’ as they’ve promised their ticket-holders? Will they totally flame out? This is a playful evening, my ticket-holding friends, and I wouldn’t dream of spoiling the fun you’re going to have.
REVIEW
The Full Monty
Theatre: Mayfield Dinner Theatre, 16615 109 Ave.
Created by: David Yazbek (music and lyrics) and Terrence McNally (book)
Directed by: Kate Ryan
Starring: Michael Cox, Daniel Williston, Paul Cowling, Will Brisbin, Rachel Bowron, Autumn-Joy Dames, Ryan Maschke, Gavin Hope, Maureen Rooney, Christine Bandelow, Cameron Chapman, Andrew McAllister, Jahlen Barnes, Devin Alexander, Karina Cox, Even Dowling, Sarah Dowling
Running: through March 30
Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca, 780-483-4051
