- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: PREMIERE OF LONDON WEST END MUSICAL OF "THE FULL MONTY"
- Date: 5th March 2002
- Summary: SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMANDA DONAHUE SAYING: "I am! I don't know anything about it, someone just told me they have adapted it to American and what did I think of that. I don't know, that's why I'm here, I'm going to see, you know, what it's like. I really wanted to see how it was adapted to the stage. So, I think it's a very good idea, but lets see what happens. (CONTI
- Embargoed: 20th March 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA5F51UI4Q4L03MOSWLTB3TPQX7
- Story Text: 'The Full Monty', the smash Broadway musical based on the Oscar nominated British film of the same name received a standing ovation when it opened in London's Prince of Wales theatre last week.
The hit Broadway musical version of the low budget British film, 'The Full Monty', brought the house down when it premiered in London's West End last week. Unlike the film which was set in Sheffield, England, the musical takes place in Buffalo, New York, a location that's thousands of kilometres away from the original but one that has a lot in common with it according to the show's producer, Lindsay Law.
"The story has just been moved to America, frankly because the creators of the musical were American and that's what they know best, but the story is precisely the same as in the film."
Like Sheffield, Buffalo is a depressed industrial town with a huge pool of unemployed workers hopelessly looking for a way out of their situation. The creative team were determined to keep the essence of the script that made the film so popular.
"...we all worked very hard at protecting, ...making sure that the heart that beats so strongly in the film is the same guiding principle of the musical." says Law.
Law says watching the theatre audience response to what's happening on stage is a bit like tracking the audience's response to the movie. "I mean they laugh and they laugh and they laugh and then they burst into tears and then they stand and cheer for the end. And you go, hey that's what they did in the movie. The heart is the same.", he says.
The multi-talented team who created the Broadway show included Tony nominee, director Jack O'Brien, acclaimed choreographer Jerry Mitchell and award winning writer, Terrence McNally.
Asked whether the actors were shy about taking their clothes off on stage Mitchell said they found it a very empowering experience. "I'm very careful about taking their clothes off for the first time and they were shy, but once you get their clothes off, you can't keep them on." he says.
Mitchell based his choreography on basketball moves to tell the story in dance for guys who drink beer and eat pretzels convincingly. "They are rehearsing and they are making just a real bad case of it and they say well, you know, it's like playing basketball and so they do some Michael Jordan moves and suddenly their strip routine comes out of pretending to play basketball.", he says.
Jarrod Emick plays Jerry Lukowski, the lead role performed by Robert Carlisle in the film and John Ellison Conlee plays his best friend, Dave Bukatinsky. Conlee was also in the Broadway run of the show.
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