Fractured Fairy Tales

DeGarmo, as pretty and pudgy as a summer plum, sings at two pitches, loud and louder. And though she throws herself into each number like she still thinks she has a chance against Fantasia Barrino, you'll find yourself wishing a big foot would drop out of the sky and squash her flat.

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As fairy tales go, the one in The Full Monty, now getting a mighty good production at Theatre Three, is a beaut. Six unemployed steel mill workers in Buffalo decide to earn quick cash by taking it all off in an amateur striptease show for one night only. Only trouble is, they can't dance, they're built more like Clydesdales than Chippendales and they're not really sure than can go all the way, no matter how loud the ladies scream.

Yes, a Cinder-fella story in the works and one with plenty of charm, lots of laughs and the same sweet message about self-esteem and body image that made the original Brit movie version a surprise hit in 1997.

The musical, directed at Theatre Three by Michael Serrecchia, works from a book by Terrence McNally (staying loyal to the film's best bits) and music and lyrics by David Yazbek, composer of the current Broadway hit Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The R-rated content gets a little smuttier than the flick, but it's all in good fun.

Like WaterTower, Theatre Three's been taking some nice risks lately. With The Full Monty, they're not only chancing the defection of the stiff old waxworks who buy season tickets by telling dick jokes and parading six naked men, they're in great danger of actually shaking off their image as Dallas' musical theater mausoleum by casting the adorable Gary Floyd in the lead role of struggling divorced dad Jerry Lukowski.

Floyd, a cabaret crooner and songwriter discovered by Contemporary Theatre of Dallas for Pump Boys and Dinettes a few seasons back, has become an in-demand musical theater star in Dallas and elsewhere (he did Uptown's hit Aida last spring and then wrapped a run of Pump Boys in Denver just before starting Monty). He's handsome and can act, his voice has a sexy, raspy edge to it, he looks good with his shirt off--half the fun of watching Full Monty is waiting to see him peel in the finale, "Let It Go."

OK, enough of the hubba-hubba. But The Full Monty without a good-looking bloke in the lead would be kind of a letdown. Backing him up with their bare backsides (at least in the big reveal) are five terrific other guys: Coy Covington as exec-type Harold Nichols; Wilbur Penn as "Horse," the guy who doesn't quite live up to the moniker pants-wise; Charles Ryan Roach as chubby, insecure Dave Bukatinsky; Theo Wischhusen as pigeon-chested security guard Malcolm; and Andy Baldwin as Ethan, the clumsy dancer with the biggest...ideas.

This is another musical with lots of good people onstage and plenty of great tunes to hum on the way home. Not to mention the hubba-hubba.