| This
year's Fringe has several shows starring three men, but the three
guys naked are getting the most coverage. Is coverage the right word
to use? Well, yes, because they don't really get naked at all聟
'It's
kind of a strange title', says Richard Michael-Morse, who plays
Phil Kunin in the show, 'it's certainly been a talking point!'
'It's
helped on the Royal Mile', adds Pete Howe, who has just completed
his second year at LIPA. Singing, dancing, and sex seem to be the
order of the day, but on the second night the audience was made
up mainly of women and the cast feared that they were expecting
a strip show.
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| Three
Guys Naked is directed by a LIPA graduate |
Directed
by LIPA graduate, Neil Frost, the National Student Theatre Company
(NSTC) play is an authentic hit at the fringe; the show is selling
out every night. In the caf茅 downstairs from the venue after
their fourth performance I played them a voxpop of the audience
response from the show.
'That's
my mum and dad!' exclaims Phil. Well, yes it was but the fifty plus
other people who came out smiling and exclaimed 'excellent', 'fantastic'
and 'awesome' weren't genetically inclined to like it.
Colin
Bordley, press and publicity manager for the NSTC is marketing it
well, and a visitor to Edinburgh cannot make it through the day
without spotting someone in a sickly yellow tee-shirt with Three
Guys Naked emblazoned on it. The understudies are working hard too,
performing regularly on the Royal Mile to a help drum up a good
crowd.
Three
Guys is a case of hard work paying off; during the first few days
of the run, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe website carried a brilliant
review of the show and word of mouth is certainly enhancing audience
figures.
'We
were walking down the Royal Mile yesterday and a group of people
who were sitting outside having a meal started clapping us!' exclaims
Phil.
There
are always reasons why audiences flock in to a production and for
this it's down to the key elements of a great off-Broadway musical
being played out originally on stage. The story is easy to follow,
it is very funny and the characters are entertaining.
The
three actors are outstanding, and for NSTC performers they show
amazing promise. Perfect American accents, quick delivery, comic
timing - their energy is amazing. Edward Harrison, who plays Ted
Klaustermann barely spoke throughout my interview with the cast
but evidently saves all of his talk for on stage where he is the
most outgoing and energetic performer of the three.
The
songs are stuck in the standard structure for the cheesy American
musical but the words are far more interesting. It's been shortened
from the production that premiered at LIPA and marketed to fit the
fringe, and you can't help feeling something has been lost. They
try their best, but the small venue (Greyfriars Kirk House) in Edinburgh
isn't the ideal place to perform, what with the two great pillars
blocking the view of the stage, and the band squished in the corner,
but because of its comedy club theme the show shines through in
the intimate venue. This is a play that will thrive in any venue,
and it can only be hoped that it will be seen by a much larger audience
later this year.
Words:
Emma Hardy
Three
Guys Naked from the Waist Down is at Greyfriars Kirk House, 86 Candlemaker
Row, 4-25 August (not 11 or 18) 8.50pm 0131 225 6575
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