preppy-3
A filmed version of the long-running off Broadway musical. It has 10 handsome talented guys singing and dancing while totally nude about being gay. I saw this twice live. First was in 2003 in NYC. I hated it. Then I saw a restaged version of it in PTown in 2012 and LOVED it! The songs are OK. Some are bad--"Robert Mitchum" and "Muscle Addiction" were dreadful--but most were good. Two favorites were "Gratuitous Nudity" and "Perky Little Porn Star". Also the guys are not all white boys--there's a black, latino and Asian guy in the cast too. Kudos to the cast for having no inhibitions to performing totally nude. That can't be easy. Fun and entertaining. Not rated but it would probably get an R or NC-17 for the non-stop full frontal male nudity. Only debit--some bad direction lessens some of the numbers.
Gordon-11
This film is a taped showing of a musical which features naked men dancing and singing about men and gay related issues.Maybe it is because I did not even know about this show, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I was entertained throughout. I especially liked "Fight the Urge", "Jack's Song" and "Perky Little Porn Star" which featured very funny lyrics and hilarious performances. I think the lyrics are witty, and they certainly put effort in to make the lyrics rhyme. "Window To Window" is another good song as it captures yearning for intimacy very well. Others have criticised the miming, but I think it's OK, as they have not attempted to hide this fact.I think "Naked Boys Singing" deserves more praise, as I was entertained by such a good performance. Let's not forget that takes a lot of courage to perform on stage naked.
TheScholarGypsy
This show has been performed live around the country with a wide variety of casts. I saw it first in the Provincetown production the first summer it was in P-town (2001)--before it was, curiously enough, banned in that overwhelmingly gay resort (the codes which resulted in its closing have since been amended). I saw it again later in the off-Broadway, long-running production in New York. Oddly enough, the P-town production was far better than the New York one--fresher, cuter, more spirited and funnier--but that was only in the 2001 showing; subsequent attempts to clone the production ("Bare Naked Lads" in 2007) were definitely third-rate. This filmed production features a Los Angelos production cast, and it is, as other comments have suggested, not the best. I would rate it somewhere in between the top-notch 2001 P-town production and the third-rate "Bare Naked Lads" P-town show from last summer.
Joel Kurzynski
Before starting I should say that I saw the original show in NYC in 2001 and enjoyed it. What made the stage show unique is that it provided quality musical theatre by nude actors, LIVE. The live quality gets the show a long way. Seeing it on film (with popcorn) is sort of odd.I saw the film as part of the 2007 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and was surprised to find it to be a filmed version of the live show, taped in LA. The beginning of the film shows the cast members flaunting into the theatre while casually shedding their clothes in preparation for the show. Besides these and a few other cinematic flourishes, the movie version offers little new content or perspective. A treat for fans of the show are new arrangements, orchestrations, and musical settings of the familiar songs. (For example, the song "Nothing But The Radio On" is turned country.) What frustrated me most about the movie was the quality of the movie itself. This is a GREAT show and for posterity sake deserved a great adaptation. The film makers obviously hadn't have experience in filming a live performance. The production quality was more pornographic. The editing was choppy and the pre-recorded vocals were way too loud. The "special effects" were akin to those made by a novice film maker, fresh out of high school.While the live show may be hard to see for some (especially in rural areas) the film can act as an acceptable substitute (like "Puppetry of the Penis). Most folks will go for the camp and penises. I just wish they were shown it in a prettier frame.
AD
