Oh! Calcutta! (1972)

I was 10, hiding under the dining table, while my parents thought I was asleep, I was watching Oh! Calcutta on the Dutch tv. It was an eyeopener for me, and though it caused a lot of upheaval in the media the next day, it showed that times where changing and that people no longer let there lives be ruled by others but made choices for themselves. In some ways, Oh! Calcutta was just fun. And the music was definately good. It is only a few years ago that it was first shown in Israel...a sign that in some countries of the world you are not as free as in others. Where gay marriage is normal in Holland, and gays are put to prison or to death in some other countries, sexual freedom is also not the same everywhere. Oh! Calcutta was a clear sign of the times, and still is a pleasure to watch.

This move is a mostly funny mostly naked satire of sexuality of the times, circa 1970, that still holds up today.The bodies are perfect and most of the gags are right on the money.It was written by some of the best writers of this century and the acting is superb.The dance numbers are some of the most innovative ever choreographed and the people are naked--isn't that what your always wanted to see in a modern dance routine anyway!Be sure to check out the "Sex Clinic" sketch, it will leave you in stitches!

Filmed record of the live stage play (complete with an upscale audience arriving confused and leaving bored). It begins behind the scenes just prior to curtain with the male and female actors in the dressing room completely naked applying body make-up to various body parts and discussing if they should invite relatives to the play which will feature scenes in which the entire cast is...naked. The play begins with the actors lined up across the stage slowly dancing...naked. What follows is a series of comedic musical sex skits (mostly unfunny) with many of the players...naked. After you see the actors cavort naked together the rest is anticlimatic and boring. Bill Macy of TV's "Maude" dangles his privates as if he were playing percussion instruments. If that's not enough to avoid this film I don't know what is. Raina Barrett and Samantha Harper are cute and nice to look at though. Nudity was a brave new world to off-Broadway and the actors were all pretty brave to risk exposure (sorry for the pun) to ridicule. It is obvious that the nude actors find support and comfort appearing in mass with the other nude actors. More than once we see them in a huddle. I saw a revival a few years back and that same uneasiness did not exist (the lead female was an ex-Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader and centerfold). Each of those actors were of the new breed which would be comfortable soloing nude on stage. The audience was expecting a strip show, and got it.

Oh Calcutta! can not be revived anymore than the sixties can. The pioneers of nude theater were pioneers but looking back there's really not much to see. Oh Calcutta! still exists, without the male actors, in strip joints across America.

Oh Calutta was edited at Teletape Studios in New York City. I was 28 years old when I edited this video. It was edited on 2 inch tape using the first electronic editing system called Editec. We spent many days and nights working on the piece. I remember my car was towed away twice during the edit sessions. The video was to be shown on closed circuit video projection to a number of theaters around the country but many had to cancel because of protests. A poor quality film was made from the video tape and shown in theaters along with "Fritz the Cat". I was surprised when I discovered the video had been made into a DVD. Where was the original tape all these years?

I rented this for the same reason people went to see it when it was filmed: I'd heard about the sex & nudity and I was curious. I got a lot more than that; it's a time capsule.

The video was made from a closed-circuit TV recording at a live theater performance. I can only assume it's a fairly honest reproduction of the real thing. It's a few nude dance numbers along with quite a few skits. The skits are comedic, nearly all involve nudity, and are all about sex in one way or another. Topics range from masturbation to swinging to kinky toys and more. They're at least as amusing as, and only slightly more sophisticated than, your basic Benny Hill Show. On face value alone it was worth the $1 rental (as long as you're not one who takes his theater experience too seriously).

Its real value comes from its representation of the sexual revolution. It's hard to imagine that it had problems with obscenity laws considering what's available from a wide variety of sources today. It was controversial simply because people talked freely about sex and were naked. When the actors were naked, they neither hid nor flaunted it; they simply were, and appeared happy to be so. They cheerfully acted out skits that portrayed sex as neither serious nor dirty but just plain silly and fun. Compared to the modern business of sex, this is a breath of fresh air which made me long for a simpler time that I barely remember (and may not have ever actually existed).

The same day I saw this was the Janet Jackson/SuperBowl brouhaha, later described as "a perfect opportunity to both sell sex and condemn it." Oh! Calcutta! does neither. The closing number has the cast stripping to nude and dancing gleefully to a song whose chorus is "I don't care what you say / I'll do it anyway / Because it's mine!" That's the sexual revolution in a nutshell; for us to deny ourselves the pleasure our bodies bring us is to remove a large part of the joy of living. But today it's just one more thing for sale.

Cast member and choreographer Margo Sappington has gone on to become a somewhat influential figure in the world of dance.