Musical theater students at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance will present “The Full Monty,” a musical adaptation of the 1997 hit film about out of work steelworkers who concoct a plan to do a strip show to make money.

Director Mark Madama, an associate professor of musical theater, says that although the show-all strip tease is central to the plot, it is not a show about stripping. “It is not like burlesque,” he says. Instead he describes it as “a true family values musical.”

“Losing their jobs and being out of work for 18 months is emasculating. They can no longer fulfill the traditional role of men as providers and breadwinners. It’s about the drastic means that men will go to in order to keep food on their tables and keep their families together,” Madama says.

Doing the strip tease “gives them their power and manhood back,” Madama says. “Even though it’s just one night, it shows that they aren’t totally at the mercy of the rest of the world.”

The 1997 British movie came first. Then the story was adapted for the stage, in part by director and U-M alum Jack O’Brien (along with writer Terrence McNally and musical composer David Yazbek). Some details of the story changed, including its setting in Buffalo, NY instead of England. And most of the characters' names are different.

As in the movie, Jerry (played by Joe Carroll), pulls five other men into his scheme. “It’s a show about Jerry searching for a reason to live, a new place in the world. The only thing he knows is that he wants his son Nathan (Milo Tucker-Meyer), and he wants to be as good of a father as possible. But he’s kind of a screw up,” Carroll explains.

“You just fall in love with how sympathetic these characters are. They are highly relatable,” Carroll says.

Danny Romeo, who plays Jerry’s friend Dave, thinks the musical “is about what it really means to be a man. They’re normal working class guys who have been providing for themselves or their families, which defined who they were. They have that taken away from them, and they have to figure out how to make themselves feel like they’re worth something.”

“I think it’s really about family. Jerry is doing it for his son. Dave is doing it for his wife,” says Milo, an 11-year-old at Tappan Middle School.

The other men who join the fray are Jerry and Dave’s former supervisor Harold (Ted Stevenson), as well as Malcolm (Colin Hartman), Ethan (Sam Lips), and Horse (Dan Belnavis).

“The Full Monty” is not only a story about the men. The women in the production also have their own journeys. The characters Vicki (Alex Finke), Harold’s wife, Georgie (Chelsea Wilson), Dave’s wife, and Pam (Mary LIttle), Jerry’s ex, must negotiate their new place in the world as well.

“Both the men and the women are trying to redefine what their place is within their relationships,” says Wilson, who plays Dave’s wife, Georgie. “ As the men are trying to figure out how to be providers, friends, and leaders in the community, Georgie is struggling with a similar but different kind of identity crisis; How do I play the role of the wife and nurturer when I’m the one bringing in the money now?” she explains.

Finke says her character’s journey is a little different because she is the only one totally in the dark about the fact that her husband has lost his job. However, reflecting on the other female leads, Georgie in particular, she thinks; “Now that the men have been laid off, the women become the breadwinners. They have a new energy that comes with the power of making money,” she says. “However, with that, it is also a struggle to see their husbands or the men they love in trouble,” she explains.

Also appearing in the musical, Brene’ Jackson plays piano player Jeanette, Conor Ryan appears as Keno the professional stripper, and Ryan Morton appears as Pam’s new flame Teddy. In addition, the ensemble cast includes RJ Brown, Chelsea Burris, Gabi DeLuca, Conor Guzman, Michael Hartung, Casey Low, Madison Micucci, Travis Ward-Osborne, Ryan Vasquez, and Danny Wilfred.

Choreographer Mark Esposito says it can be a challenge to tell people who already know how to dance well to act as though they have “two left feet.” “These are blue collar workers who have never really danced before. They have to try to be bad at first, which is hard to do with experienced musical theater students. I relied on what the guys could bring organically—what feels sexy to them. But I don’t want them to look like dancers,” he says.

Madama concludes that the plot of “The Full Monty” is “a good fit for the times we’re in ... A lot of people have lost their jobs, particularly a lot of factory workers have lost their livelihoods. The men in the story have to cope with what they’ve had stripped away from them. I think it’s what a lot of people are going through now with unemployment.”