This Production Contains Nudity: Is it A Big Deal?

By Mal Vincent

The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

Reese Madigan and Lena Kaminsky play two lonely diner workers in Virginia Stage Company’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.” (Virginia Stage Company)

Beware. Be warned. Get ready?

The Virginia Stage Company is about to give us a play with something to worry about.

Nudity.

Phooey. Brave stage fans need not fear. Most people take a shower every day.

So what's the big deal with a little extra skin in the company's production of "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune"?

After all, we are a Navy town with a history of strip clubs. And the complaints about nudity in local theater have been remarkably few over my decades at this desk. People here complain a great deal more about blue language than they do about lack of costuming.

Still, the Virginia Stage Company is nervous, or truthful, enough to issue a warning about its upcoming production of the naturalistic Broadway love story "Frankie and Johnny." Its promotion of the play about the relationship between a cook and a waitress states, simply, that "this production contains nudity."

In 2014, perhaps, that is the only statement needed. "Warning" may not be the right word, but it will serve as a defense against anyone who gets all huffy about the play's opening scene.

Through the years, there have been more complaints about the low-key, "naturalistic" talk on local stages than there has been about anything approaching naked sensationalism. In "Frankie and Johnny," the pair, for example, spends a good deal of the play talking about making an omelet.

It's not exciting, but it is poignant.

For all its talk of nudity, Terrence McNally's play is about two middle-aged, working-class folks who could hardly be described as strippers.

Johnny is a short-order cook. Frankie is a waitress. They work in the same greasy grill restaurant. After their first tentative date, they go to bed. That's when we show up - as they're getting out of bed, au naturel, and ready to discuss things.

Nudity is natural. Right? It was staged that way in the 1987 off-Broadway original when Kathy Bates appeared as Frankie and F. Murray Abraham played Johnny. The show was a success, even though the reviews were mixed.

"Frankie and Johnny" didn't make it to Broadway until 2002 when Edie Falco, of TV's "The Sopranos" and Stanley Tucci took over the roles - and were criticized for being too attractive to be so lonely and dateless.

The movie version, released in 1991, changed the play somewhat and drew furious criticism from feminists who resented the fact that gorgeous Michelle Pfeiffer was given the role of Frankie, rather than character actress Bates. The critics claimed that it revealed Hollywood's sexist ways.

Interviewed by The Virginian-Pilot before the film's release, Pfeiffer countered with the claim, "Personally, I think Kathy Bates is beautiful. As for me, I'm an actress. I can play it."

It's nudity that gets the headlines, but the play's essence is in the middle-aged, lonely aspects of the characters. It is set entirely in a dingy New York apartment, where Frankie and Johnny discuss the possibilities of a future together - or, at least, a relationship. The play is a mood piece in which nothing actually happens.

Locally, Lena Kaminsky and Reese Madigan have the roles in the play that's running through April 20. Director Chris Hanna said "the play is refreshingly frank in its exploration and it would be unnatural to avoid the sight of authentic naked bodies in its staging.

"It would be likewise wrong to highlight those bodies gratuitously or, worse, to substitute their idealized Hollywood version through casting. In every production detail I have strived simply toward the real."

The play's characters are more interested in talk about late-night TV, Shakespeare and western omelets than any wild times. Johnny yearns for a permanent relationship with Frankie. She, in turn, would like him to get out. She's been hurt before and doesn't want to take a chance with him. But, they both are lonely and the audience, hopefully, can be persuaded to pull for them.

Even in New York, the extended nudity in "Frankie and Johnny's" opening scene drew as much attention as the poignancy.

Here, there isn't likely to be much hoopla. After all, this is the town where the Little Theatre of Norfolk once staged "Macbeth" with three topless witches.

Early forays into nudity included "Hair" in 1971 at what was then the Center Theater, now the Harrison Opera House, and "Oh! Calcutta!" in 1977 at Chrysler Hall. There was hardly a flutter of controversy.

After all, the "Oh! Calcutta!" cast was made up of people who could hardly be fodder for the prurient. And "Hair" had only one, brief, moment of flesh, meant to suggest the newfound hippie Age of Aquarius.

"The Full Monty," also from "Frankie and Johnny" playwright McNally, had its infamous nude scene backlit when it was done at both Chrysler Hall in 2003 and at community theaters.

Chrysler also hosted Morgan Fairchild in 2005 as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate," as naked as the day she was born, but in faint light. She seduced the graduate but got bad reviews.

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking may have been looked on as something shocking. Today, avant garde talk can excuse just about anything risque - but it has to have poignancy and loneliness.

"Frankie and Johnny" are desperate soul searchers. Audiences are likely to let them roam in the nude.

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If you go

What "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," the comedy-drama by Terrence McNally presented by the Virginia Stage Company
When 7 tonight, 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday with 4 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday matinees; through April 20
Where Wells Theatre, 108 E. Tazewell St., Norfolk
Cost $10 to $50
More info 627-1234, www.vastage.com