The Full Monty

The Full Monty is a musical comedy about a handful of men in a Buffalo steel town whose mills have closed. Short of money and of options, they put together a strip act of their own. Terrence McNally wrote the book; David Yazbek wrote the music and the lyrics.

The source is the 1997 British film The Full Monty, written by Simon Beaufoy and directed by Peter Cattaneo. Beaufoy's story took place in 1990s Sheffield; the musical moves it to Buffalo, New York, and otherwise stays close to the film. The original Broadway production opened on October 26, 2000, and earned 10 Tony Award nominations.

In April 2026, Roundabout Theatre Company announced the show's first Broadway revival. On October 15, 2026, the company put that production on hold, citing cast availability. Roundabout said it would announce the timing later.

Jerry Lukowski and his former coworkers at the shuttered mills get by on unemployment checks, and Jerry has fallen behind on child support for his son, Nathan. He needs money to stay part of the boy's life. His best friend, Dave Bukatinsky, is married to Georgie and self-conscious about his weight.

The idea comes on a night when Jerry and Dave slip into a club where Georgie and other local women are cheering a touring male revue. If women will pay for that, Jerry reasons, men from the mill can do it too. They round up a troupe: Malcolm MacGregor, a lonely security guard at the mill who lives with his ailing mother; Harold Nichols, their old foreman, who has hidden his job loss from his wife, Vicki, and who becomes their choreographer; Horse, an older man whose arthritis matters less than how much he knows about dancing; and Ethan Girard. Jeanette Burmeister, a pianist with a long show-business past, plays for the rehearsals.

In the second act, rehearsals force each man to face how he feels about his own body. A dress rehearsal ends in arrests, and the troupe, billed as Hot Metal, becomes the talk of the town. To outdo the touring revue, the men pledge to strip all the way, which is what the title means. Malcolm and Ethan fall for each other, Dave loses his nerve and walks away from the act, and Georgie and Vicki stand by their husbands.

The song list has 14 numbers, eight in the first act and six in the second, including one reprise. Four of them carry much of the story:

• "Scrap" opens the evening, as Jerry, Dave, Malcolm, Ethan and the other jobless millworkers take stock of their lives.
• "You Rule My World" has Dave fretting about his weight and Harold about Vicki's spending; in the second act, Georgie and Vicki answer with a reprise.
• "You Walk with Me" is the duet in which Malcolm and Ethan let their relationship show.
• "Let It Go" is the finale, and the original cast performed it at the 2001 Tony Awards.

San Diego's Old Globe Theatre gave the musical its first performances, from June 1 to July 9, 2000. On Broadway, previews began on September 25, 2000, at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, and the run ended on September 1, 2002, after 35 previews and 770 performances.

Jack O'Brien, the Old Globe's artistic director from 1981 to 2007, directed the Broadway production. Jerry Mitchell choreographed, Harold Wheeler orchestrated, John Arnone designed the sets, Robert Morgan the costumes and Howell Binkley the lighting. Patrick Wilson played Jerry, and the other five men in the act were John Ellison Conlee (Dave), Marcus Neville (Harold), Jason Danieley (Malcolm), André De Shields (Horse) and Romain Frugé (Ethan), with Kathleen Freeman as Jeanette.

North American tours followed in 2001 and 2002. In London, the Prince of Wales Theatre hosted the show from March 12 to November 23, 2002, and several members of the original Broadway cast made the trip. The musical has since been produced in more than 20 countries.

Roundabout had slated the revival, announced on April 16, 2026, for spring 2027 at the Todd Haimes Theatre. After the postponement, Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco took that slot.