The Full Monty Opens at Miners Alley
With Laughter, Joy, Celebration, Music and a Touch of Sugar
Photo courtesy Nick Sugar
I've been around for a long time, and some of my happiest theatre memories go back years. I've never forgotten the crazy gang of performers who once played together at the Heritage Square Music Hall and I still miss their antics, that mix of comic brilliance and pure insanity. I will never forget Annie Dwyer wandering into the audience and snatching half-full glasses from patrons' tables to toss back their contents before stumbling back onstage. Or crawling uninvited onto the lap of a startled audience member and crooning a mixture of love and harsh rebuke into his ear.
Then there was Rory Pierce, another company member, singing a love song directly to an elderly lady in the front row so sincerely that she reached forward to stroke his cheek.
Both Annie and Rory have been seen on Denver stages quite a few times since the music hall closed, but it's still a pleasure to know they're now mingling their talents in the musical, The Full Monty, at the spiffy new Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden.
And I assure you these aren't the only intriguing performers in a cast filled with acting talent.
Then there's Nick Sugar, whose creepy Emcee in Cabaret years back I've never forgotten and whose Hedwig set the bar so high I thought I never needed to see this show again. Nick has been directing and also teaching at the Denver School of the Arts lately, and he won't be strutting the stage in Full Monty. Instead he brings his considerable expertise to the role of director. Add as musical director the terrific David Nehls, who has worked together with Nick several times. "I think we do appreciate how each other works," Nick said to me once. "He tends to go with my crazy."
Clearly this is a show not to be missed.
Although Nick has been busy since the first days of the Covid epidemic, and has a show at the Aurora Fox coming up, like most theatre people he has done a lot of thinking in the past few difficult years. Now, "I'm open to see what shows theatres are offering and how I would fit into the season. It's different for each theatre how they pick what they're doing. I think from administrators to artists people had to kind of check what they really were passionate about and really wanted to do. I think Covid woke up a lot of people artistically and financially as well."
Nick is excited to be working in Miners Alley's brand new facility and with artistic director Len Matheo. "I think Miners Allay represents family in the way they do business," he says. "Being welcomed in makes you feel this is where I want to be.
"That's how Len approached me; there was a lot of mutual respect and admiration for each other's work--and that's very much appreciated."
The Full Monty, according to Nick, is "a fun and a big choice for them. It's got the best heart. It kind of follows the protagonist Jerry through a lot of trials and hardships and through it all he picks up these new relationships and creates a new community of all these misfits. They become united and empowered."
Nick and David Nehls have worked together on The Full Monty before: "We came into the project knowing what was needed. It's a very large cast and we had to pare things down a little and make sure we still covered everything."
Fortunately, there was a good turnout of talent for the audition and Nick is pleased with the cast, many of whom had acted together before: "They do have a community already up there. The arcs of the individual actors are strong and so is the arc they create together."
Pretty much everyone knows the meaning of the phrase "full monty" so I ask Nick if his actors have any problem with nudity. "They have to take all their clothes off onstage and it's difficult to expose yourself," he says. "It's a journey to get comfortable. There's a line a stripper says in the show: 'Anybody can take their clothes off but to do it onstage with hundreds of people looking at you, it takes something.'
"That's the journey of Jerry trying to discover what actually does it take. It takes integrity to commit to his word with his son's support riding on it. It's more than unzipping your pants. Each one of the characters is doing it for a specific reason and what they discover along the way is something else. It's not just about the money and losing work but being who you're meant to be."
Together Nick, David, the performers, and the lighting director found a way to stage the moment of nudity so that it's more a brief tease than titillation. And, says Nick, there's so much more to the musical than that. There's laughter and insight and also "tender moments that say a lot more than stripping."
The Full Monty runs from April 26 to June 2, 1100 Miners Alley, Golden. 303-935-3044 minersalley.com