In a lovely little FaceBook triangulation of late that involved three pivotal people in my life – Ann, LeeMichael and Skip – I was reminded of a visit to the Gaiety – the male strip club that now-almost-infathomably inhabited a precious piece of Times Square/Theater District real estate across from the Minskoff Theatre. Ann and I had gone into the city to see ‘Sunset Boulevard‘ in 1995, and when it was over I suggested/begged/demanded that we take in a few stripper rotations at the Gaiety, where part of Madonna’s ‘Sex’ book was so gloriously and infamously shot.
Looking at and thinking about Times Square right now, it seems impossible that such a place existed – right near the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre where we had seen ‘Titanic’ in 1997! It was the only male strip club I’ve been to (that I can remember – was there another?) which is a crime in itself when you think about it. Honestly, Ann and I were only there because of the Madonna connections – the naked men were just a bonus, not the destination. And it was a bit of a bizarre set-up when we were there.
There were sets of six or seven strippers, who each did a solo dance to a pop song by some gay diva (obviously Madonna was a perennial choice) in which they took almost everything off. They then disappeared off stage for a few moments (cue the fluffer, apparently) and when they returned, fully nude and rather excited, they did a minute or two more at full mast. Then they left the stage. That was basically it. Each stripper did his thing, in the same basic set-up. I don’t think we stayed for the full duration, so maybe there was something more interactive and interesting at the end – Ann and I were back at our room across the street at the Marriott Marquis before we reached the finale, spent from an evening with Betty Buckley and a few male strippers. It was enough.
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