Full Monty more than a strip act

The director of The Full Monty is pretty adamant that the musical is not your standard cheeky, strip-teasing Chippendales’ act.

Yeah, it’s a story about a half-dozen guys down on their luck who turn to erotic dancing to earn a few extra bucks.

But it’s a lot more than that believes director-choreographer Adam Mazerolle-Kuss. He sees it as a man-heavy, specific and complex show.

“It’s not about taking off your pants. It’s about a whole community and an entire community experience. It’s about the loss of employment and what it does to family relations and what it does to society. It turns everything upside down and puts it on the men’s head.”

In this Americanized musical stage version adapted from the 1997 British film of the same name, six unemployed Buffalo steel workers decide to choreograph a strip act after seeing their wives’ over-the-top interest in a touring Chippendales’ troupe.

But as they prepare to go “the full monty,” stripping all the way, their fears, insecurities and anxieties surface. In forming a buddy-like camaraderie, certain personal issues are revealed: custody battles, being overweight and dealing with an alternative sexuality.

“It’s a project that what society does to women, we see turning on the men. The men are unemployed. The men are judged for being overweight. The men feel useless. They feel like second-class citizens. You realize women go through this every day and what an affront it is to put labels on persons,” Mazerolle-Kuss says.

St. Albert’s own David Johnston plays Malcolm, a lonely, awkward security guard. Raised by his sickly mother, Malcolm is extremely sheltered and appears unable to form relationships with people. Johnston sees him as asexual, an individual who doesn’t understand how to connect and form friendships.

“I like him. I like the ability to spend time with damaged people. When the play ends, he’s not fully prepared to deal with the world.”

As one of the musical’s more disturbed characters, Malcolm attempts suicide.

“Dealing with mortality and desperation has been most challenging and rewarding. It’s not something I usually tap in to and it’s pushed me.”

One of Malcolm’s most revelatory scenes is with Molly, his mother played by another St. Albert actor, Lucy Haines.

Molly is an overbearing mother who is frustrated by her failing health. She relies completely on Malcolm and the two have developed an unhealthy relationship.

“But they love each other. There’s a whole love-hate thing going on,” Haines explains.

In the play Molly dies, and Haines’ biggest challenge is the funeral scene where she is laid out in a casket.

“The other day in rehearsal I was trying not to move and I kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, what if I sneeze? I’m supposed to be dead,’ ” she laughs.

Mazerolle-Kuss has choreographed eight numbers but Michael Jordan’s Ball, the closer for the first act, is by far his favourite.

In it, the guys have two left feet. They can’t seem to get dancing right. So they’re encouraged to think of a basketball court where they dribble through empty spaces.

“Dance is like that. You go where the empty spaces are,” says Mazerolle-Kuss who has turned the dance routine in a series of graceful fake spins and shoots.

Accompanying the dancers are 12 live musicians including two St. Albert players – Jean Runyon on trumpet and Paul Kane music director Darryl Price playing sax, flute and clarinet.

Mazerolle-Kuss would not reveal if it was a full nudity show. However, he did toss out a teaser, “What we do does justice to the title.”

The Full Monty runs June 14 to 30 at La Cité Francophone.