Sheffield Lyceum – until Saturday 11 May 2019
Reviewed by Lottie Davis-Browne
4****
It’s hard to believe that this cult classic movie is now twenty-two years old yet most of the topics covered are still relevant today. Whilst one might be lead to believe it’s all frolics, laughter and raunchiness, there’s actually a much darker edge to it. Gaz and Dave along with the rest of their now ex-colleagues were lead to believe they had a job for life in Sheffield’s once thriving Steelworks industry, suddenly find themselves on the dole – humiliated further as their wives and partners become the main bread winner whilst faced with the added humiliation being made to attend a Job Club. The impact of unemployment leads Gaz to risk losing access to his son Nathan, unable to afford to keep up with child maintenance payments, and pushes one guy into attempting suicide. This particularly strikes a chord with anyone who has ever had to deal with unemployment or redundancy to the point where you could practically feel the pain of those around you in the audience.
When Gaz (Gary Lucy) has the bright idea of forming their own equivalent to the Chippendales in order to raise some much needed cash, he soon finds himself and a group of ex-coworkers holding auditions in the now derelict steelwork. Amongst the selected there’s Horse (Louis Emerick) – who’s “more Shetland than Shire” if you get my drift…an ageing arthritic guy who may not be so stable on his feet but sure has the hip action to a tee (partly due to his shaky troublesome hip!), loner and suicidal Lomper (Joe Gill) and Guy (“Gentleman….the lunchbox has landed!”) – an openly gay young male who’s trade secret his his more-than-adequate anatomy.
What I love about Simon Beaufoy’s award winning play is that it stays true to the original 1997 movie, rather than Americanised musical. This is no surprise however since Beaufoy also wrote the film screenplay. But having seen both the musical version and the play version, I much prefer the play – The Full Monty wouldn’t be The Full Monty without it being set in Sheffield! I was fortunate enough to catch the tour in Leeds earlier this year, but seeing in in the city that started it all, and the city I’m now proud to call home, was the icing on the cake.
Robert Jones stunning stage set features as the productions back drop – perfectly recapturing the derelict steelworks set amongst the backdrop of 1980s industrial city of Sheffield – complete with broken windows, “Margaret” (the nickname given by the workers to the cold heavy crane used to move steel) – there was so many intricate details to this stunning set I often found my eyes wondered from the cast to the steel backdrop – but don’t worry – I was soon brought back round whenever the guys started to take any items of clothing off!
The six guys – who later really do go all the way ie The Full Monty – work perfectly in sync with each other and for me this is what makes this production so wonderful. Despite the fact that it’s often difficult to understand the dialogue due to the poor Sheffield accents – not even convincingly Northern sounding half the time – seems to be that even the finest of actors struggle to master a convincing Northern accent; this aside this production is otherwise pretty faultless. Scene changes are slick, doubling up as various settings without the need to make many changes to the set.
It’s impossible to single out a particular cast member but if I had to choose one I’d definitely say Louis Emerick for bringing the warmth and humour of Horses character to life. Not surprising that ticket sales are doing so well it’s wonderful to attend shows where the auditorium is pretty much full to capacity – be sure to capture this cult classic on tour!