Stage nudity is not what it used to be. I remember when I was younger, any hint on TV, film or stage was of the female variety. As a full-bloodied teenager I regarded this as a good thing. Not now though. The nudity has changed.
The week before last we went off to Secret Cinema to be confronted by a guy being throttled in the shower room with his todger hanging out all over the place. The Cat looked away, I suspect The Cat's Mother looked discretely as we tip-toed through the pools of water.
Then last week we headed to Cabaret. If you've not seen this production, I'd get on down and enjoy it whilst you can. Will Young is superb...absolutely made for the part, the set-piece choral sections are magnificent, although some of the other parts were weak. The show closes with a line up of naked bottoms...not titillating given the way the story ends, but naked bottoms there were....mainly male.
And then last night we went off to The Opera, to see Carmen. I like opera, although I pretty much realise that in between magnificent songs, you have crappy dialogue and hopeless plots. Carmen is typical...I suspect that pretty much everyone (well not everyone) will know most of the tunes, even if they don't know where they are from. You would expect that in the safety and security of a very, very middle class environment we would be spared male genitalia. No chance. The rather bonkers Spanish Director has seen fit to jazz it up and the leading man gets to wave his tackle in our faces. Evidently it's a bullfighters tradition.
So my plea is not for less nudity...more is fine, just so long as it's the right sort.
And here is a picture of me taken last night by The Cat's Mother on the stage of The Colliseum in London after the performance of Carmen. As you can see I've kept my clothes on, and even covered my head.
