History: 20 years of naked people onstage

This Week in History: August 1–7

Last week, we celebrated the beginning of a character, and now we will honor the end of an era. It was on August 6, 1989 that the revival of Oh! Calcutta! gave its 5,959th and final performance at Broadway’s Edison Theatre.

Oh! Calcutta! is unique in the respect that it focuses specifically on sex, and it includes nudity throughout the show. The original production debuted off Broadway in 1969, just over a year after Hair opened and offered its famous nude scene. The project was the brainchild of Kenneth Tynan: the English theatre critic was working for The New Yorker when producer William Donaldson approached him about the idea of a theatrical production about sex, having read that Tynan had argued that sex and irreverence were themes that needed more attention in the theatre. Donaldson recalls that Tynan initially rejected his idea to create a burlesque show for the London stage, saying that “English comedians are very puritanical. He wanted to do something more classily erotic.” (Ultimately, the Lord Chamberlain’s strictly conservative control over theatre led to the production opening in New York instead of London.) While the show would be about sex, it was not meant to be crude: the show would be an “Evening of Erotica.”

The show was billed as “devised by Kenneth Tynan,” and it featured scenes and sketches by Tynan, Sam Shepard, John Lennon, Samuel Beckett, and others. The songs were by The Open Window, which consisted of Peter Schickele (aka PDQ Bach), Robert Dennis, and Stanley Walden. In one scene, the cast members play themselves and discuss their fears of auditioning for the show and share the various rumors they’ve heard in song. One performer tells that “I hear the cast album’s going to be recorded in the nude,” and another asks, “Why do they call it ‘Oh! Calcutta!’ ” The simple answer is that it was a suggestion from Tynan’s wife, a journalist who had recently shown Tynan a book with an image of Clovis Trouille’s painting Oh! Calcutta! Calcutta! To add a layer of complexity, the title of the painting is a pun on the French expression O quel cul t’as (“What an ass you have!”).

After moving to Broadway, the original production ran until 1972; after a four-year hiatus, during which the show was running overseas, it was revived on a smaller scale. New York Times reviewer Frank Rich asserts that the show had long ago lost its original audience by the time the revival closed in 1989, pointing out that most of the audience at the final performance was comprised out-of-towners who didn’t even realize it was the last show. But the show’s original choreographer Margo Sappington, believes that the revival itself was a poor imitation of the show she helped create, and expressed relief when it finally closed its doors. Rich’s article on the closing performance offers that the end of the revival’s run indicated the true end to the ’60s, a time of rebellion and sexual exploration. Yet there are some, like blogger Suzy Conn, who believe it should come back. Could such a show succeed today? When does a period piece become a museum piece?
Russell M. Dembin is a theatre educator and freelance dramaturg. Past production dramaturgy credits include the Drama Desk-nominated world premiere of Underground and the U.S. premiere of GBS at The Clockwork Theatre; the New York premiere of “Finding the Way” at Manhattan Theatre Source; and Annie Get Your Gun at Albany’s Park Playhouse, which featured a historically accurate recreation of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and an accompanying exhibition, “Annie Oakley: A Natur’l History,” in honor of Annie Oakley’s 150th birthday. You can reach him at Russ.Dembin@thecallboard.com.