Review: The Full Monty

Atlantis’s Productions presents The Full Monty! Get ready to laugh and enjoy great music.

Before watching the play, I tried to watch the movie and I lasted for about 15mins before I decided that the movie wasn’t worth my time. The movie made me skeptical about the play and I was so happy to be proven wrong.

Rhoda and I rushed to Carlos P. Romulo Theater to watch the play after our yoga class. We knew that we’d be late but decided not to get all stressed out over it, applying what we learned in class: “Let it go. Let it be.” We got in and presented our tickets 25 mins later after the show started. Guess what? We got free upgrades! See what you get when you don’t stress over things and just let them be? ^__^

Anyway, when we found our upgraded seats, I was surprised to see that the scene was just right where I stopped watching the movie. Tthe scene in front me was a lot more funnier and entertaining which is the complete opposite of the movie when I decided to stop watching and sleep instead. Am I lucky or what? 😀 I felt that I didn’t miss so much from the play and even got upgraded seats!

The Full Monty is about six recently unemployed men. Jerry Lukowski (Mark Baustista) was just kicked out by his wife for not being able to support his son and being out of a job for a while. Trying to find a quick way to earn cash to be able to continue seeing his son, Jerry convinces his best friend, Dave Bukatinsky (Jaime Wilson) to put up a strip act and go up against the famous Chippendales when he learned that their wives pay up a good deal of cash to see men down to their underwear.

Dave and Jerry recruited four more men to complete the act: Malcolm MacGregor (OJ Mariano) a suicidal bodyguard living and taking care of his mother, Harold Nichols (Arnel Ignacio) as their supervisor from work and a dance instructor. The four of them found Noah “Horse” Simmons (Marco Sison) and Ethan Girard (Nino Alejandro) during auditions.

The rest of the cast are Ima Castro, Jay Valencia-Glorioso, Sitti Navarro, Ciara Sotto, Steven Conde, Ralion Alonso, Altair Alonso, and Hans Eckstein.

The story revolves about the insecurities of these six men; one tries to be prove himself to his son and wife, another is dealing with his weight, he believes that his wife won’t love him anymore if she finds out he doesn’t have a job, one  struggles with his age and another with his sexuality. It was heartwarming to see these men help each other with whatever they were going through and help them get over with insecurities.

The highlight of the show was during the performance of Jerry’s group when they decided to bare it all and go Full Monty to increase the level of competition against the Chippendales. Like the end of the movie (as I have heard from Rhoda) Jerry’s group takes their underwear off and the lights go out, Atlantis Productions stayed true until the end. Jerry and the gang ripped their briefs out the exact moment the lights go out and the only thing you could see were their silhouettes. Haha. In case you’re wondering, the strippers came out for the final bow wearing robes ( I don’t think they’re wearing anything underneath).

I truly enjoyed the play and was determined to not watch the movie and keep the memory of the play with me instead. Even Rhoda agreed that the play was way better than the movie. Did I get my money’s worth? Yes, and not just because of the free upgrade. The show was entertaining and everyone of the cast did great. I even searched for the soundtrack of the play and is playing as I write. Yey!