Review: The Full Monty
This award-winning theatre adaptation of the 1997 classic film will leave you in hysterics.
Last updated 31st Jan 2017
Voted the best touring production by the UK Theatre Awards, The Full Monty is the story of six unemployed Sheffield steelworkers prepared to get their kit off to help out a chum.
Adapted for theatre by Simon Beaufoy, the show stays faithful to the original film and is perfect for the stage.
Featuring some familiar, some not-so familiar faces, the cast is a convincing motley crew of makeshift strippers transforming a dilapidated steel works into a comedy rehearsal room.
Eastenders, Dancing on Ice and Footballers’ Wives star Gary Lucy takes the lead as Gaz, the out-of-work dad fighting a custody battle.
Louis Emerick, Andrew Dunn, Chris Fountain, Anthony Lewis and Kai Owen step up to the mark as his group of associates, willing to go all the way to raise some much needed cash.
The film has been described as a ‘feelgood’ watch many times but also touches on some serious themes. Oscar winning writer, Simon Beaufoy grew up in Sheffield. He said the entire production is based on the northern English humour.
“It was intended to have the humour of the place I grew up in and the spirit of Sheffield- that very Northern humour whereby the worse things get, the better the jokes,” Simon said .
“It’s a coping mechanism.”
And humour is the central theme of the play.
The group, strike up an unlikely friendship throughout the course of their rehearsals. Comedy is used to see them through their struggles such as depression, homosexuality, poverty and unemployment.
Directed by Jack Ryder and an impressive creative team, the show is brought to life in a heartfelt display of friendship, optimism, hope and some dodgy dancing thrown in for good measure.
It’s no surprise the performance has received standing ovations every night of the week. The Full Monty is the perfect feel good show guaranteed to leave you in fits of laughter and giggling in the face of adversity.
The final scene confirms the audience’s suspicions, the guys had just as much fun performing, as the crowd did watching.