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BrumHour saw The Full Monty – The Play at the invite of The Alexandra.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
This production contains, strong language, depiction of attempted suicide and some bare bottoms.
Review: The Full Monty – The Play at The Alexandra
⭐⭐⭐⭐”A fun updated production”
Directed by Michael Gyngell, written by Simon Beaufoy.
Set in the late 1990s in Sheffield, unemployed Gaz (Danny Hatchard) has been told by his ex Mandy (Laura Matthews) to pay child maintenance for his son Nathan (Rowan Poulton) or lose access to seeing him. He spots The Chippendales Dance Troupe have been in town and sets about making his own male adult strip show.
Gaz enlists his best mate Dave (Neil Hurst) along with former manager Gerald (Bill Ward) plus Lomper (Nicholas Prasad), Horse (Ben Onwukwe) and Guy played by Jake Quickenden.
This isn’t a musical but it does feature plenty of music up to the late 90s from Hot Stuff to What a Feeling and You Can Leave Your Hat On by Tom Jones.
Danny Hatchard is an excellent leading man as the down on his luck Gaz and his characters’ friendships and relationships around him are believable and solid, after this the characters are quite thinly drawn. It is, however, easy to see the subject matters are what draw the actors to this story. It covers a range of male physical and mental health issues, from body positivity, depression and taking pride in how we dress to looking after others.
The audience adores Jake Quickenden and he leans into this throughout his fun performance. Rowan Poulton was excellent at this performance as Nathan, a child parenting his parents is a tough role to take on.
I’ve seen The Full Monty – The Play staged in 2017, this version feels much stronger with its stripped back set which is part climbing frame part scaffolding. It gives the characters much more to do than simply perform.
A fun updated production, The Full Monty – The Play is at The Alexandra until 3rd February 2024. Discover what is coming up at The Alexandra here: atgtickets.com/venues/alexandra-theatre-birmingham.
