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Naked Boys Singing
The idea here is simple: there are naked “boys” (men, actually), and they are on stage singing. That’s the gimmick of this long-running musical revue, which features musical numbers like “The Naked Maid,” “The Bliss of a Bris,” “Fight the Urge,” “Members Only,” and “Muscle Addiction.” Now entering its seventh year, Naked Boys Singing continues to charm theatergoers and attract handsome young actors who are willing to work in the buff.
The book, music, and lyrics are by: Stephen Bates, Marie Cain, Percy Hart, Shelly Markham, Jim Morgan, David Pevsner, Rayme Sciaroni, Mark Savage, Ben Schaechter, Robert Schrock, Trance Thompson, Mark Winkler and Bruce Vilanch.
Pictured: Naked Boys Singing
nytheatre.com review
Martin Denton · July 1, 2004
Since Naked Boys Singing! opened on July 22, 1999, there have been five Tony Awards given for Best Musical on Broadway (and two of those winners have already come and gone); we've gotten a new president, fought a war in Iraq, and handed power over to a new government there; we've been through Paris Hilton and The Passion of Christ and the Blackout of '03. NBS! goes on, at a new home (since March of this year), with no end in sight.
How does a show this slight last this long? By delivering the goods, so to speak; and by re-focusing its target audience. NBS! has morphed from a vaguely liberating gay-inflected romp to a more commercialized let-it-all-hang-out revue for the Chippendales crowd, i.e., bachelorette parties and other assemblages of females on girls-night-out. The new NBS! spectators are more vocal than the old ones, and it makes for a different experience. Where my first time out, the script kind-of mattered, now the show is pretty much only about nudity: eighty minutes of excuses to get the eight-member cast out of their clothes. The show eschews a time-honored burlesque m.o. by opening with all eight guys completely in the buff, singing the signature tune "Gratuitous Nudity." From there, in a series of songs and sketches, they robe and disrobe singly and in groups, for our diversion and/or delectation.
The material is the same as before, which is to say that it ranges from the charming ("Robert Mitchum," by Mark Winkler and Shelly Markham, the only number performed fully clothed, a paean to the days when pretty boy clones weren't the norm in pop culture iconography) to the friskily sexy (two of David Pevsner's contributions, "The Naked Maid" and "Perky Little Porn Star," which are the only bits in NBS! that admit that nakedness actually turns people on) to the relentlessly adolescent ("Members Only," Stephen Bates and Robert Schrock's list song of slang words for penis; "Jack's Song," by Jim Morgan and Ben Schaecter, a dumb sight gag about masturbation). Trance Thompson and Perry Hart's "The Entertainer," which is not terribly interesting, is the show's one authentic strip number, and so at least feels honest in the show's new context; ditto Mark Savage's "Muscle Addiction," set in a cruisy gym. But NBS!'s three gay love songs seem perfunctory now; contrary to the show's opening number, it's not the nudity that's gratuitous here, but rather any pretense of tenderness or higher purpose. NBS! is resolutely about getting its performers' pants off. Not that there's anything wrong with that—but I guess I wish that a more adult and/or genuinely witty approach were being applied.
The current cast includes a couple of long-term Naked Boys—Tom Gualtieri, whom I saw in the original company back in '99 and who perhaps now over-sells "Robert Mitchum" more than he needs to as he performs it for something like the 2,000th time, and Patrick Herwood, who similarly seems to be less than at his enthusiastic best. In contrast is the very personable George M. Livengood, who makes "Perky Little Porn Star" (and the disarming conversation he has with the audience just before) into the show's crowd-pleasing highlight (naked, from the stage, he wishes various ladies in the audience happy birthday and so on—and invites spectators to have their pictures taken with some of the naked boys, who will be wearing towels, after the show).
Among the newer cast members, Ryan Lowe makes a strong impression in "The Entertainer," as does John Sechrist, rapping in "Muscle Addiction."
Production values are more modest than you might expect at a show with a $65 top; while we're talking about tickets, let me mention that the pricier premium seats, in the front rows, offer perhaps not so wonderful a view as you might hope for.
Naked Boys Singing! remains giddy, harmless fun; it's not my idea of the perfect all-nude, all-male musical (I'm not sure what is), but it's obviously been making a lot of people happy, or at least reasonably amused, for a relatively long time, so who am I to grouse?
This page updated Tuesday, October 7, 2008 5:19 PM
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