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Oh! Calcutta! Closes After 5,959 Perfomances as Broadway's Longest-Running Musical
Nude Broadway Classic Had Crowds Doing More Than Just Dancing in the Aisles!
The musical revue Oh! Calcutta! started as the brainchild of British intellectual and social critic Kenneth Tynan.
It featured naked people singing and dancing, and became a worldwide sensation any place where audiences were interested in seeing live nude bodies.
No wonder Oh! Calcutta! went on to reign as Broadway’s longest running production, closing after nearly 6,000 performances on this date in 1989.
Fascinating freak Kenneth Tynan concocted Oh! Calcutta! as an avant-garde theatrical exploration of sex in keeping with his rage against the establishment.
Among the contributor’s to the show’s sketches, which were both comedic and dramatic, were esteemed figures on the order of Nobel prize winner Samuel Beckett, renowned political cartoonist Jules Feiffer, acclaimed playwright Sam Shepard, and even John Lennon!
A team led by composer Peter Schickele (a.k.a. PDQ Bach) came up with Oh! Calcutta! ’s memorable music.
Most of the set pieces included moments when the cast members revealed their bare bodies – female and male alike.
One of the nude dudes was none other than Bill Macy (pictured, in repose, at left) who played perpetually put-upon Walter Findlay, husband of Bea Arthur’s unforgettable Maude.
Oh! Calcutta! originally opened Off-Broadway in 1969, and ran for 1,600 performances (the London production ran for 2,400).
A closed-circuit pay-per-view TV version aired in 1971, followed by a big-screen movie adaptation a year later.
In 1976, Oh! Calcutta! moved to The Edison theater on Broadway, where it remained for 13 mam-orable years.
Mr. Skin does a three-legged tap-dance in salute to this towering skin-chievement.
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