The 40 Hottest Guys In NY Theatre — Page 2

Who cares what Norm Lewis looks like shirtless... I'm more moved by his gut wrenching Tony-nominated performance as Porgy.

What a ridiculous statement. Like the two are mutually exclusive. And don't think FOR A SECOND he doesn't notice a physically attractive person on stage. He sounds like a sanctimonious idiot.

It's a weird little culture we've created. When the curtain came down at intermission of two Broadway musicals I caught this year, those seated in front of me had more to say about the bodies of the chorus members than about the dramatic impact of the piece.

He makes it sound like this is something new. I think perhaps the objectification of men rather than women is the only new twist, but comments about sexy chorus girls and scantily clad women on Broadway have been around since the birth of Broadway. Vaudeville, Burlesque, Ziegfeld Follies...Oh! Calcutta!, Bob Fosse, Dance Ten Looks Three...the objectification of performers is as old as the hills.

I guess one of the requirements for getting a role in NY theatre is genetically having no chest hair (save for Andy Mills) because I don't believe for a second that any of these men would shave or wax their chests.

I believe a lot of them probably do. It's been very trendy for a quite a while, especially in younger men, gay and straight. I'm not a fan of the hairless craze, but just about everywhere in the performance industry (especially with chorus or smaller roles), hairless chests and meticulous manscaping is usually the majority.

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Updated On: 9/5/12 at 06:02 PM

I admit, these kinds of hot lists but me, but as was pointed out, they're common to all media. And when more than half the photos are from guys' publicity photos of them in their underwear and jocks, or at Broadway Bares, you have to assume that they know what some of the attention they'll get is.

ANd I have no idea why someone would assume that none of these guys would wax, and it must be natural (unless that's sarcasm I completely missed). It always drives me crazy, and while it seems to be changing slowly (ie models are starting to show *some* chest hair--although I still remember ten+ years back the NYTims proclaiming that chest hair was officially coming back, and I waited patiently for nothing...), but...

Many shows ask their actors to shave or wax if they're performing shirtless as well (there's a hairy celebs blog that's amusing to see that certain actors will be fairly hirsute on one show, and then on another suddenly perfectly smooth)-- It's the 80s gay porn look having trickled down, like much gay aesthetics, into the mainstream over the years--but it's not all that new--during the Hayes code in Hollywood there was much attention paid to body hair and how much could be shown (apparently it was more allowed in things like religious epics where the half naked man wasn't meant to be sexualized, but seen as too sexual if they were a romantic lead--the stories of how traumatic Monty Clift found his extreme hairiness--there are a couple pics of him out there--and how often he went for electrolyses with little permanent result are one example).

I think their talking about the musical

I love Garfield, but I think that's the worst photo I've seen of him.

I don't even think press agents were contacted. It seemed that AfterElton just copied pics off Facebook and BC/EFA pages.

But why, I ask again, 40? It seem such an arbitrarily large number, as if no real thought process was involved in the selection. Top 10 is a conventional number for a list; top 20 might indicate a lot to choose from. But once you get to top 30 or top 40, the effect is one of a lack of caring.

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Last year apparently they did 39--so who knows, though I seem to remember them picking 40 before (on the far more interesting poll they used to do of fave gay novels, which they seem to have dropped several years ago for polls like this). But it seems to be getting some people totheir page so I guess mission accomplished for them. ...huzzah...

Is a gorg some type of lizard or animal I don't know that you're comparing his lips to?

"ANd I have no idea why someone would assume that none of these guys would wax, and it must be natural (unless that's sarcasm I completely missed)."


It was sarcasm, Sheldon!

*edit* I mean they can request you have certain haircuts, etc--I don't find it all that odd, even if it can be annoying.

*ha* sorry Bobs, I thought it was, but then someone else seemed confused by your post, and I second guessed... :P

Ha, I remember that! Well since Exec Producer Frank Velentini was known for auditioning his male actors in their underwear, I'm not too surprised... (*has nightmares of the shiny chests of the Ford Brothers...*) I know there was some weird gossip about Trevor St John on One Life refusing to wax his chest.

"These are guys with degrees" WTF?

So, it's only objectionable objectification when the guys are educated? That statement is part of the problem he purports to lament.. Beauty and accomplishment are not mutually exclusive. Implying that they are is dehumanizing. Acknowledging beauty is not.

Having said that, where the hell is Andrew Samonsky? The hottest guy in NY, let alone in NY theater.

Funnily enough, I though that OLTL was the most open to letting the actors keep some body hair. Sure it kind of came and went depending on the day, but at least it was there at least in the later years. Maybe budget cuts.

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