Naked Boys protesting! The Off-Broadway cast of Naked Boys Singing! takes to the New York City streets Aug. 29 to demonstrate against Provincetown, MA's ruling that their undressed brethren at the popular gay getaway is in violation of local zoning laws and must "cease and desist" performing at Cape Cod's Crown and Anchor.
Manhattan's Naked Boys will stage their protest at 11 AM outside their Greenwich Village home, the Actors' Playhouse at 100 Seventh Avenue South. Jennifer Dumas, one of the producers of the New York staging, calls the resort town's heat "closed-minded, perhaps even homophobic and in violation of the First Amendment." The Provincetown production is produced by Adam Weinstock through a license arrangement with the New York producers.
The Crown and Anchor received a total of six violation notices from Provincetown's department of regulatory management on the grounds that the show's full-frontal male nudity classified the show as "adult entertainment," according to a statement by the producers. A "show cause" hearing took place July 31. It was decided that judgment should be postponed to Sept. 4. The P Town show has continued.
The Crown and Anchor is located within 500 feet of a Unitarian church, the city's town hall and a woman's erotic boutique, which violates the town's zoning bylaws. With nudity on display, the Crown and Anchor becomes an adult entertainment complex, something for which the space is not licensed to sell alcohol.
Weinstock and Dumas say the nudity in Naked Boys Singing! is not sexual, but merely a part of a theatrical — not "adult" — production. "Full-frontal nudity is hardly new to the theatre," Dumas said in a statement. Now beginning its third year in New York after a hit run in Los Angeles, Naked Boys Singing! is a sometimes comic, sometimes serious, all-singing, all-dancing revue of tunes celebrating mankind sans clothing. The original 16-song score includes such numbers as "Fight the Urge," "The Bliss of a Bris," "Muscle Addiction," "Nothing But the Radio On," "Members Only" and "Window to Window."
The revue's contributing writers are Stephen Bates, Marie Cain, Shelly Markham, Jim Morgan, David Pevsner, Rayme Sciaroni, Mark Savage, Ben Schaechter, Robert Schrock, Mark Winkler and Bruce Vilanch.
The show has been produced regionally and throughout the world. A cast album is on store shelves.
— By Christine Ehren
and Kenneth Jones
