Marriott's 'Monty' a Musical Theater Summit!

The eight-year-old musical "The Full Monty" is receiving what is surely one of its very best productions to date, now through September 21st at the Marriott Theatre in the far north Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire, Illinois. One of the nation's most important musical theater venues has brought together some key figures in top form to bring this very modern musical comedy (a popular film adapted for the stage by a pop songwriter, that is) to blazing life in a touching, hilarious, traditional-yet-innovative in-the-round production. Wednesday night's in-the-know opening night crowd ate it up. "The Full Monty" goes all the way, and then some, in providing an enjoyable and rewarding night of theatergoing—a high point of this or any other Chicago theater season.

Director-choreographer Marc Robin, who relocated to Pennsylvania after winning every theater award Chicago could bestow on him (14 Jeff Awards—is that enough?), has returned to give this David Yazbek and Terrence McNally-penned tuner a real human heart and some detailed true-life touches, as well as some great comedy and truly heart-stopping choreographic moments (the opening number, "Scrap," and the finales of both acts are electrifying, and so, so right). Joining him on this mountaintop "Monty" are former Chicagoan KC Lupp (now a Tulsa, Oklahoma disc jockey) in the lead role of Jerry, Broadway's Milton Craig Nealy as Horse and Illinois's Joe Coots as Dave (both men played these roles in the show's National Tour). And as if that isn't enough, genuine Chicago legend and nationwide star Alene Robertson (9 Jeff Awards and Miss Hannigan in the 30th Anniversary "Annie" tour and recording) just shows up, piano and all, as the driest, surest, scene-stealingest Jeannette you could ever hope to see.

KC Lupp, while a good-looking, sexy, regular guy, is not as conventionally handsome as Broadway star Patrick Wilson, which of course makes him even better suited to the role of the out-of-work, divorced Buffalo dad Jerry, trying to fulfill his promises to his son and to himself while struggling to make those proverbial ends meet. His singing is superb, with manly pop high notes, and he's got some real-guy swaggering, scheming and stammering in the dialogue scenes with his best friend, "big guy" Dave (Coots) and his son Nathan (young but veteran Matthew Levy in a strong, likeable and moving performance). Coots, while touching and very real as well, gives Robertson a run for her money in the deadpan delivery department, by the way. And Nealy hits every moment of comedy and concern as Horse, bringing down the house with the first-act song and dance, "Big Black Man."

The three other actors portraying the six men who plan and pull off a one-night-only full striptease (in a desperate yet uplifting attempt at improving their lives) play their roles somewhat differently than the interpretations expected of these roles. (Three traditional and three revisionist takes on six leading roles is not a bad formula, if you ask me.) If Michael Gerhart's Harold is a bit more neurotic than straight-laced, his scenes with his wife (the surprising, depth-plumbing Kymberley Mellen) do ring true. Jason W. Shuffler is delightful but perhaps too appealing to play the dim but likeable (and energetic) Ethan, and Stephen Schellhardt hilariously channels both Sean Hayes's Jack McFarland and Molly Shannon's Mary Katherine Gallagher in his refreshing take on the role of Malcolm. While it is a bit difficult to accept the latter two characters being unaware that they are gay in the early going, none of that matters when Schellhardt unleashes a ravishing tenor voice on the solo (soon to be duet) "You Walk With Me," one of the most beautiful ballads written for Broadway in recent memory. 

Jerry's ex-wife Pam and Dave's suffering wife Georgie (Summer Naomi Smart and Abby Mueller, respectively) make the most of their roles, which could appear to be thankless plot devices or carping harpies in less capable and sympathetic hands. The strong ensemble includes many of the very best Equity actors working in Chicago's musical theaters these days, all working hard and providing nice character touches along the way. Lucky for the cast, the Marriott has supplied director-choreographer Robin with the theater's frontline resident design team, (led by Thomas M. Ryan [sets], Diane Ferry Williams [lights] and Nancy Missimi [those all-important costumes]). The musical team of Bill Busch and Patti Garwood handled David Siegel's orchestral reductions (for an orchestra of eight) excitingly and movingly. 

As written, "The Full Monty" is an unusual musical. Contrary to popular assessment of musical theater structure, the first act doesn't play as well as the second act does. (It seems a little too self-conscious of sex and class to be at ease with its own bad self, though the second act plays much better.) And the music sounds unlike any traditional show ever mounted (with the possible exception of Yazbek's follow-up effort, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"). Add to these the fact that the show ends with its six lead characters totally naked, but the actors playing them not quite so revealed (or are they?), and you have a situation which in a suburban theater-in-the-round would seem unwieldy, if not downright unplayable.

Eminently not so! Robin and company are up to each of these challenges, and take it from this observer that the show plays even better in this production than it did on Broadway at the start of this decade. The audience genuinely cares about these characters—all of them—and even though we suspect how the show will end, we just don't know how all these threads and lives will connect into that one, communal cathartic moment. Be assured that they do, but witness for yourself the twists and turn, the moments of joy and doubt that appear along the way. "The Full Monty" is a show about real, working class Americans, who love and laugh and have big flaws and bigger passions. It makes you glad to be alive, I think. Take the journey, and take a peek at bliss when you arrive. Tell them I told you to go all the way—to Lincolnshire and to "The Full Monty!"

"The Fully Monty" plays Wednesdays through Sundays until September 21st at the Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire, IL 60069. For tickets, call the box office at (847) 634-0200 or visit www.marriotttheatre.com.

Photo credit (including close-up of Joe Coots): Dan Rest

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