Bawdy behaviour, strippers — just another night at the theatre

Girls’ Night Out, Opera House, Manchester

LADIES nights are a common enough sight on the streets of Manchester but all the bawdy behaviour was inside the Opera House during last night’s opening of comedy play “Girl’s Night Out”.

Ten years ago, Dave Simpson’s play brought the house down with its saucy stab at the world of male strippers.

Now revived and rewritten, the story remains an easy, cheesy, breeze through the hen night of heavily pregnant Jane and her love-troubled gal pals.

While they head to a male lapdancing club for an evening of fun and frivolity, Tony and the boys are putting together the final touches for their strip show for the forthcoming Feast of Flesh contest.

The script has plenty of strong language and brassy girl talk, while the plot, filled with love tangles, marriage woes, sex and affairs, is very silly with glaringly obvious twists.

All eight characters are pleasant enough and mildly amusing but brimming with lazy Northern stereotypes and so shallow that it is hard to care much about them. However, the play is a fun romp and it is clear some of the crowd are repeat visitors waiting for the real- life strip choreography.

The male actors regularly whittle down their cowboy and firemen outfits on stage to show off their six-packs, with hats and hands the only things hiding their bare necessities.

Accompanied by a fun pop soundtrack with disco classics, the show may be lewd and crude but it is the perfect start to a raucous night out with the girls.