The Arvada Center’s new production of “The Full Monty” nearly got caught with its pants down. But thanks to some quick – and sane – action by the city manager and city council last week, the actors won’t have to worry about being arrested for being … well, cheeky.
The Arvada City Council voted 5-0 to bring the language in an antiquated indecency law in line with existing state law.
At issue? Exposed hind cheeks. Until last week, that was actually a bustable offense.
The city, which runs the Arvada Center, is in the lengthy process of recodifying its municipal ordinances to rid its books of arcane and conflicting language. But the indecency code was moved to the top of the dusty stack when the city attorney’s office recently came across language in “The Full Monty” actors’ contracts that said, in effect, “we can’t be arrested for anything we do because it’s your script.”
Upon further inspection, city manager Craig Kocian discovered that “under the previously existing code, if someone was offended enough by any type of exposure in a public play to complain about it then, yes, that actor could conceivably be subject to arrest.”
What kind of person would do that? “I would say this is great and hilarious theater and it only has the potential to offend someone if that person has been living in a cave,” he said.
Kocian happens to be one highly cultured bureaucrat, having previously seen “The Full Monty” on film and on Broadway. He foresaw only ludicrousness, not lewdness, ensuing if anyone actually were to take issue with this heartwarming story of unemployed steel workers who resort to a one-night strip show to pay the bills.
“But stripping is absolutely not what this play is about,” Kocian said. “It’s about breadwinners in a working-class community falling on hard times and to what ends they will go to help their families survive. It’s done with great, self-effacing humor, and what nudity there is here is coincidental to the object lesson that the play holds for all of us.”
Nevertheless, the existing code would have made a key and hysterical scene illegal to perform in Arvada. A rehearsal is raided by cops and the men, wearing only thongs, are busted for, yes, indecency. The actors would have been in violation of Arvada law for the same reason – those exposed cheeks.
“But that code was decades old and it had no currency with the world that we live in here in the 21st century,” Kocian said.
Before common sense prevailed, the two previews before Tuesday’s opening started to fill up quickly when word got out that drastic changes might be forthcoming.
“We were talking about maybe having to wear fake butt skin,” star Jim Newman said with a laugh. “And let me tell you, that would have been just awful for everybody.”
“Laramie,” Ishii winners
The Aspen Stage/Colorado Mountain College collaboration on “The Laramie Project” took the top prize at last week’s Colorado Community Theatre Coalition Festival in Fort Morgan. The People’s Choice award went to the Evergreen Players’ “Down the Road.”
Best director went to Evergreen’s Scott Ogle, best actor to Tom Cochran (“The Laramie Project”) and best actress to Mary Woods of Salida’s Stage Left (“Zeus’ Women”). Distinguished merit awards went to Wendy Ishii of Bas Bleu in Fort Collins and Dr. Allan Liebgott of Littleton’s Main Street Players.
Briefly …
The accolades continue to come in from around the nation for Martin Moran’s new book on sexual trespass, “The Tricky Part.” Writing in The Week, actress Lynn Redgrave opined, “This is a glorious memoir. To weep with. To take hope from. Because Martin Moran gives us all hope. And courage. By showing us that the broken pieces of our souls can come together and make a whole that we could never have dreamed possible” …
The Avenue’s “Parallel Lives” has gone on a two-week hiatus, including the cancellation of Monday’s planned industry-night performance. When the show returns July 8, the cast will consist of Pam Clifton and Sheila Swanson McIntyre. Nick Sugar’s “The Rocky Horror Show” opens as scheduled at 11 p.m. Friday, also starring Margie Lamb, Chris Boeckx and Brian Burron (303-321-5925) …
Littleton’s Matthew Rodgers will leave his role as Fredrich in the Pinnacle Dinner Theatre’s “The Sound of Music” Aug. 20 to join the Asian tour of the same show in China …
Want to know the future of Broadway musicals? Disney has just greenlighted “Shrek,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Tarzan.” Uggh …
Today is the last Broadway performance for the Denver-born “Brooklyn the Musical,” which overcame all expectations for a run of more than 300 performances …
And finally, the New Denver Civic’s “Menopause the Musical” marks its first birthday on Thursday. More than 110,000 people have seen this lightweight revue in which four women sing popular songs with lyrics changed to reflect “the change” (303-309-3773).
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
