Naked Boys Singing Celebrates Milestone
August 11, 2004
AJ Burton
Who would have thought that nudity had such staying power? Naked Boys Singing recently celebrated its 5 year, becoming one of the more successful off-Broadway productions in the process.
Since opening in mid 1999, the show has been translated into five different languages and been banned from places as diverse as Puerto Rico and Provincetown.
Producer, Tom Smedes said Naked Boys Singing (NBS) has shown itself to be a long-running staple of New York Off-Broadway theater, seamlessly blending catchy music, good choreography, artistic value and of course, good looking naked men for both a gay and increasingly straight crowd. In an attempt to branch beyond the gay market, NBS marketed to the Chippendale set and bachelorette parties, which now comprise nearly 50% of the core audience base.
NBS’s original 16-song score includes such numbers as “Fight the Urge,” “The Bliss of a Bris,” “Muscle Addiction,” “Nothing But the Radio On,” “Members Only” and “Window to Window.” The musical comedy revue opened in New York July 22, 1999, after a successful run at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles. The show’s contributing writers are Stephen Bates, Marie Cain, Shelly Markham, Jim Morgan, David Pevsner, Rayme Sciaroni, Mark Savage, Ben Schaechter, Robert Schrock, Mark Winkler and Bruce Vilanch. Schrock directed with choreography by Jeffry Denman (The Producers) and musical direction by Stephen Bates, who died in 2003.
With the show’s box office success and popular appeal NBS has spawned productions in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Portland, Provincetown, Washington D.C., London, Rome, Sydney, Oslo and Cape Town.
NBS is playing at Theater Four, 424 W 55th Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues in New York City.
