The new Oxfordshire-based theatre company BMH Productions certainly believe in providing variety for their performers and their audiences.
Set up a year ago by young actors Edward Blagrove, Emrys Matthews and Ashley Harvey, the company has already offered productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth and Ben Elton's Popcorn; next week they face up to the very different challenges of The Full Monty.
It is exactly ten years since director Peter Cattaneo's film opened on a surprised world, with its focus on the little-known profession of male striptease, as practised by a group of unemployed Sheffield steelworkers. Apart from anything else, it prompted fierce debate about the origin of the expression 'the full Monty', which was never, as far as I recall, entirely resolved.
What's being offered next week at the Headington Theatre (on the Headington School 'campus') is not a staged version of the film, but the entirely new US musical on the theme, first seen on Broadway in 2000. This will be its first outing in the South-East (London excepted).
The show follows the story of the film but the action takes place in Buffalo, New York State. Featuring a new score by composer David Yazbek and writer Terrence McNally, it shows us another group of unemployed steel workers and their attempt to stage a one night - and one night only - strip in which they promise they will go the full Monty'.
Direction and choreography are by Guy Brigg, with musical direction by Mark Denton. The show features a 20-strong cast of performers from all over the region who sing, dance and act, promising to take the audience "on a roller coaster of emotions".
The Full Monty is on from Tuesday to next Saturday. For tickets, call (01865) 759138. Book online at www.bmhproductions.co.uk
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