After a 13-year run, Naked Boys Singing left its off-Broadway stage, leaving the rest of us to switch to plan B for our bachelorette parties1.
It’s really quite incredible, though – the show ran for 13 years, which is the second longest off-Broadway show ever (the first is the Fantasticks), has had over 3,000 performances and, not surprisingly, hosted over 2,000 bachelorette parties. It’s also been translated into 5 different languages.
The show is a gem of off-Broadway qualified ridiculousness. One of the writers has an Emmy, they had the choreographer from The Producers, 2 of the cast members were porn stars, and one of the cast members only has one testicle (and used a prosthetic). The show is a musical revue, and opens with a song called “Gratuitious Nudity” and goes on to serenade the audience with (for example) a number about being gay in a men’s locker room, and something called “Muscle Addiction”. From reviews, towels and jock straps are sometimes involved, but the majority of the show is performed nude.
The show was more than a little unconventional: after opening and advertising predominately to the young gay population in NYC, the producers quickly realised that they needed a broader viewer base – 13 years later, the show was marketed to “people from all walks of life,” including “men, women, senior citizens, mothers, fathers, Rabbis, [and] strippers” and was a popular bachelorette party destination. The theatre was also once booked by a gay nudist colony, the members of which brought gallon plastic baggies (for their clothes) and towels (for the seats). In 2005, a Milwaukee production of the show was closed down by police, and shows in Atlanta, San Juan, and Provincetown (Mass.) were shut down by the city governments as well. After the Milwaukee production was shut down, the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center won a censorship lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee for $20,000.
If you feel like you’ve missed out, the show is still playing London.
1And unconventional bachelor parties.
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