Don’t blush — ‘The Full Monty’ is coming to Fullerton

T.J. Dawson was a college student from Huntington Beach on spring break in New York with friends. Their goal was to see the best Broadway shows and they each got to pick.

A friend chose “The Full Monty,” an American musical based on a 1997 British film about a group of unemployed steel workers who put on a male strip act to raise money. Think the Chippendales touring group, which was hot in the 1980s, and the 2012 “Magic Mike” movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum.

The difference is that the term “full monty” stands for total nudity.

Dawson didn’t want to see it but reluctantly went along. He said he emerged transformed by the authentic characters and strong story. He identified with Dave, a big guy with plus-size insecurities about his weight and XXL (extra large) doubts about his worthiness.

“It was so unexpected,” said Dawson, now the co-founder and artistic director of Orange County-based 3D Theatricals. “During parts where the other people laughed, I was crying. Part of my life was played out before me, showing my insecurities and trouble with my self-image. I left the theater telling myself that I could never play that part. I just wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Years later, Dawson is married, has a family and is running the 6-year-old theater company he founded with his siblings and his wife. And he is the director of a new production of “The Full Monty,” being performed at Fullerton’s Plummer Auditorium for three weekends starting Friday.

“This really is not so much about taking their clothes off, although they do, but honestly, you don’t see any more than what you would see at the beach,” Dawson said. “And there’s profanity. The men are unemployed steel workers in Baltimore, so that is part of their language.

“But if you get past all that, you can have an unexpected emotional journey, seeing how these men learn to takes risks and embrace life and love.”

Terrence McNally wrote the musical, which debuted in San Diego in 2000 before it hit Broadway. The story is mostly the same as in the film. The lead character is Jerry, a 32-year-old divorcee with a 12-year-old son who finds himself out of work when the local steel mills close down.

He gets behind on child support payments, which could cost him shared custody. He has to think of some way to raise money. Then he notices a poster advertising the upcoming male strip show by the Chippendales.

“Jerry is always coming up with terrible ideas,” said Allen Everman, who plays the lead role. “But this time, he gets his best friend Dave to go along with it.”

Dave is played by Matthew Downs.

“He has a weight problem,” Downs said of Dave. “He makes a lot of jokes and is a pretty funny guy, but he’s got a lot of problems, and he has lots of walls up.”

The mill closure caused “his world to come crashing down on him,” he said.

Dave and Jerry start holding auditions for men to fill the six dancing parts and are startled to see how little talent their friends have, especially when it comes to dancing and shedding their clothing, one item at a time.

Each character has a story, including Harold, who conceals from his wife that he was laid off, and Malcolm, who has just survived a suicide attempt. They all need this show for different reasons. So the choreography is set, music is selected and a venue found. Of course, the people in their neighborhood are appalled yet intrigued by the idea.

As the show date nears, Jerry gets cold feet.

“Jerry seems to have the most confidence of the group,” Everman said. “His insecurities are emotional. He has problems following through on his promises. He lets people down all the time.

“When he backs out of the show, he sees he is letting his son down.”

It is also a major effort for Dave to be part of the act because he is so worried about how he looks.

“This show really challenges the definition of what is sexy and what is masculine,” Downs said. “And to expose yourself both literally and metaphorically” is a self-affirming act.

This is only the second musical Downs has done. His first was playing Horton the Elephant in 3D’s “Seussical the Musical.” The company members sized him up.

“They told me I would be a perfect Dave,” Downs said.

Everman has played the part of Jerry before, in Claremont’s Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theater in 2009. That is where he met Dawson.

With only three performances to go in the run, the Candlelight’s Dave hurt his back and had to pull out of the show. The producer knew Dawson, who had done some acting, so he called to offer him the role. The catch was he had only three days to learn the whole part, all the lines, the songs and the dances.

Despite his belief that Dave was a role he would never play, Dawson agreed.

“It was freaky, but I wanted to help my friend,” Dawson said. “If I could rise to the challenge, I thought I would learn something.

“The audience was so supportive. They knew I was just stepping in. It hit me when I first went on that stage that this was real for me. It was an unbelievably exhilarating experience.

“So ‘The Full Monty’ is personal for me, and profoundly affecting.”

Dawson hopes the audience members will be moved and inspired by the cast of men and a few women in “The Full Monty” just the way he was transformed all those years ago in a Broadway theater. The show is not much like the classic popular musicals that tend to draw people in.

“We want to push our audience to the edgier stuff,” Dawson said. “We hope the community embraces the show.”

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IF YOU GO

What: “The Full Monty”

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays from April 22 to May 8. Additional performances are at 8 p.m. May 5 and 2 p.m. May 7.

Where: Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton

Cost: Tickets are $25 to $95

Information: (714) 589-2770, Ext. 1