Also this issue:

A Moment Like This
City Paper's arts writers weigh in on the best of 2002.
-Janet Anderson, Debra Auspitz, Peter Burwasser, D.A, D.A.F, D.W, Juliet Fletcher, David Anthony Fox, Lori Hill, J.A, Deni Kasrel, R.R, Robin Rice, David Shengold, David Warner and Toby Zinman

Artsbeat
-Debra Auspitz

Peter Pan and Wendy
-David Anthony Fox

The Nutcracker
-Janet Anderson

Reading Backwards
Our book reviewers point out the year's bright spots.
-Andrew Ervin, Juliet Fletcher, Frank Halperin, Brian Howard, Elisa Ludwig, Andrew Milner and Alex Richmond

December 25-31, 2002

artpicks

The Full Monty

Here you go: a holiday entertainment that's full of energy, laughs and tenderness -- and not a Scrooge to be seen or a carol to be heard. When I saw this show in New York two years ago, I wrote:

I'm going the full monty on this: It's fabulous. A Broadway musical without the chromium-plated production numbers and the immense cast, without the over-miked singing and the star turns, without the overbuilt sets and trick choreography, The Full Monty is the real deal: fun and funny, a solid story with lovable characters, great choreography (Jerry Mitchell) -- wait until you see the basketball number! -- wonderful actors and good, and often clever, songs by the nearly unknown David Yazbek. The English movie of the same name about blue collar guys out of work who decide to make money doing a strip show for one night was adapted by Terrence McNally (who's become a Broadway hit machine: Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class, Ragtime, Kiss of the Spider Woman). The locale is now Buffalo and the unemployed steel workers -- fat, thin, bald, old, young, clumsy, crude -- are real-looking people, as are their sweet and vulgar wives. This show has got, to quote a lyric, "the goods."

Let's hope the national touring company -- with lots of Broadway chops, including Hairspray's director Jack O'Brien -- is as talented, testosterone-driven and irresistible as the original cast.

Tue.-Sun., Dec. 31-Jan. 5, call for times, $42-$75, Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St., 215-336-1234.

—Toby Zinman