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I just finished stage managing a production for a community theatre here. Let me start out by saying I was a big fan of the movie, and so it took me a couple of weeks to get 'used' to it as a musical - and an Americanized musical as well (one of the reasons I loved the movie was the British comedy of it).
Overall, it was a great show - but we also had a great cast, which helps so much as I'm sure you know. The best part of it is that the music is set for these characters, which are 'regular guys'. (Although the score is a little high for the men in a few places.) These are real people, as the director said more than once, and you can't have 'actors', if that makes sense.
Yes, you have to do the Full Monty - that's the whole point of the show, filling expectations. But what we did is what they did at a few productions the director went to see, which was all based on what was done on Broadway - you get lights in the back that come up at the pivotal moment and basically blind the audience. You can see what the Broadway folk did at the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A55WLYPoyc0 - Tony Awards on YouTube to see what I mean. The script is set up to do that. We also had the ladies sit up front and throw money at the last possible moment - the credo was, 'The more distractions, the better'. Warning, though - either way, your tech crew is most likely going to see stuff - and potentially your orchestra, depending on where you put them. Make sure they're not easily offended by it. I think the company still has their Full Monty sign, in the hopes they can rent it out to other theatres in the area that might want to do the show.
"Suggestions, admonitions, audience reactions?" The audience loved it, every night (even - or should I say especially - the Red Hat Society that came in for a Sunday matinee). The language is a bit rough, but again - these characters are so 'normal', so 'real', that they're able to get away with it. We had a few negative reviews from other theatre folk, but nothing too scathing, and the 'regular' audience (i.e., non-theatre folk) seemed to love it.
I'm not sure what your community situation is like, but our biggest casting problems were "Horse" (the "Big Black Man") and, believe it or not, "Vicki" (Harold's wife, because she has a doozy of a number in the first act). You also have to have a kid who's parents are aware of the script (and that one scene has him on it to potentially see frontal nudity - an iconic scene from the movie that they used is Ethan's 'audition' scene, where he just pulls down his pants - there are a number of ways to get around the kid actually seeing anything).
We also had an ace choreographer that did some great stuff - most of the music when I first ran across it on the Broadway soundtrack wasn't my cup of tea, so to speak (I really only liked two songs), and I absolutely HATED "Michael Jordan's Ball" (it just seems 'dropped' into the show, if you know what I mean). But our choreographer did some great 'average-looking' choreography (if that makes sense) to where I actually enjoyed watching "Michael Jordan's Ball" and the other production numbers.
Biggest issue - scene schanges - and where to put the orchestra (the place this was done doesn't have a pit). There are a LOT of scene changes, and you can't really have a full set as a result. We utilized some of the minor cast members as a scene change crew, and also set up some of the scenes where the lead would sing in just a spotlight while the scene was changing behind him.
For example, you have one scene (it's one of the iconic scenes from the movie) - where you need a car for one of the characters to attempt a suicide, and it's on for maybe 10 - 15 minutes, and that's it. But you NEED that car. And there's another scene (again, an iconic scene from the movie) where Dave is in the bathroom trying to put on the plastic wrap around him. This whole scene is maybe 5 minutes!
Final problem we had was costuming, i.e., the outfits for the final strip scene (and the opening strip scene as well). We ended up having to rent the costumes for the final strip scene from another theatre who had done the production the season before.
Again, I had a great time working with this show, and there was only once when I really started getting tired of doing the show (a rarity for me - I'm usually ready for the show to be over by tech week!). And that's my two bits.
Angie
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