Broadway's The Full Monty, an audience favorite and a strong seller at the discount tickets booth in Times Square, will announce that it is entering its final weeks at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.
Producer Lindsay Law told the company July 10 that newspaper ads would appear the weekend of July 12 to announce final weeks and a box-office discount ticket offer, according to company members.
The musical based on the film of the same name had the misfortune of opening the same season as The Producers, in 2000-2001. It is widely thought that in another season The Full Monty — a warm-hearted musical comedy about jobless Buffalo, NY, steel workers who cast themselves in a strip-show — would have walked home with Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score. Theatre newcomer David Yazbek (whose background is rock and pop) penned music and lyrics. Terrence McNally wrote the book, which re-set the film story from Sheffield, England, to Buffalo, NY. He also created a new character not in the movie — a world-weary musical director for the boys, Jeannette (first played by the late Kathleen Freeman, and now by Jane Connell, of Mame fame).
A national tour is criss-crossing the country and a London cast is going "the full monty" — taking it all off — as well.
The current Broadway cast includes Andrea Burns, Will Chase, Jane Connell, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jay Douglas, Annie Golden, Carol Linnea Johnson, Larry Marshall, Aaron Nutter, Connor Paolo, Jonah Pauloo, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Steven Skybell, Lori Chase, Angelo Fabroni, Denis Jones, Jannie Jones, Sloan Just, Patti Mariano, James Moye, Jason Opsahl, Patti Perkins, Jimmy Smagula, C.E. Smith, Matthew Stocke, Todd Weeks and Ronald Wyche. Jack O'Brien directed and Jerry Mitchell choreographed; they are now helming the new Broadway-bound musical Hairspray. Producers for The Full Monty are Fox Searchlight Pictures, Lindsay Law and Thomas Hall.
The current cast includes members of the fall 2001 national tour that shuttered prematurely. A second tour produced by Jeffrey Seller and Kevin McCollum began earlier this year.
Over the past 18 months, various ad campaigns and images were used to promote the musical — from naked legs of its male characters to the boys wearing police uniforms (as in the movie) to New Yorker-style cartoons with punchline captions.
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"The Full Monty" film was the surprise low-budget hit of 1997 with Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and wins with Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score. The movie told of six average-looking British men who decide to star in a strip show to raise money in their economically-depressed mill town.
Songs in the Broadway score include "Scrap," "It's a Woman's World," "Man," "Big Ass Rock," "Life With Harold," "Big Black Man," "You Rule My World," "Michael Jordan's Ball," "Breeze Off the River," "The Goods," "You Walk With Me" and "Let It Go."
Before opening on Broadway Oct. 26, 2000, The Full Monty began life at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre June 1 with good reviews and an Old Globe box office record. Performances extended there through July 9 before the show was remounted at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre Sept. 25, 2000, opening Oct. 26.
For ticket information about The Full Monty on Broadway, call (212) 239-6200 or visit the theatre at 230 West 49th Street.
