The theater darkens. Spotlights illuminate an empty stage. The band lines up along the back wall as the audience quiets to a murmur, anticipating the beginning of the performance. The actors emerge. They’re in their underwear.
They’re in their underwear?
Though it may remind you of some odd reversal of the dream where you forget to wear your pants to school, it’s actually Undressed: The Musical, an entirely-improvised comedy musical performed by — you guessed it — actors in their undergarments. Undressed is unlike anything I’ve seen or even heard of before, so I was glad of the opportunity to sit down and talk with Ilan Kaplan ’17 — producer, creator, actor and graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Undressed: The Musical came into being two years ago, in November 2023, spurred by Kaplan’s desire to strip improv down to the very bare bones of what it can be. On the premise of the show, Kaplan described that it is an exercise in shared vulnerability. Each night, the performers invite people in the audience to write down embarrassing anecdotes from their lives on little slips of paper, then they select three to read out and allow the audience to vote for the final selection. Then, they turn that story into the improv musical of a lifetime. “We metaphorically undress the person whose story we take; they share with us, and we share with the rest of the audience,” Kaplan explained. By performing in their underwear, the actors meet their selected audience member on equal terms. “It’s a show where people are being honest because they can’t be anything other than honest,” Kaplan elaborated. Both parties are vulnerable and exposed in their own way — the performers physically and the audience member emotionally — which evens the playing field, nullifying embarrassment by turning it into a communal experience. When the burden of something otherwise humiliating is spread across so many shoulders, it turns into something you can laugh about together. (And trust me, the audience was laughing.)
By nature, Undressed has to be entirely improvised once the actors hear the story of the night. The performers have to be quick on their feet, playing off every decision their stagemates make. Here enters the classic, age-old phrase “yes, and.” Even those of us outside of the theater sphere have probably heard that one before, but Kaplan explained what it really means when you’re up on stage: “‘Yes’ means I’ve heard you. I’m affirming you. … ‘And,’ not only that, I'm going to add my own thing on top of it.” It’s more than agreeing with a castmate, it’s wholeheartedly accepting their choices and working to make them look good. That, Kaplan identified, is what makes a great improviser.
When asked about his favorite part of the whole experience of performing Undressed, Kaplan responded, “My favorite part of everything is being on stage and my castmates making me laugh. … These are really well-tenured performers. And yet, [every time] there’s still something new [that] can happen. When I'm on stage, hanging on for dear life to not start laughing, that’s the most fun.” Knowing that the actors are sharing in just as much humor as the audience underscores how communal of an experience the performance is. When someone makes a great acting choice that sends the audience into uncontrollable laughter, the actors are just as amused. Every night, the story is new, the jokes are new, the audience is new; the camaraderie and comedy stay the same.
Certainly, I felt like part of a once-in-a-lifetime comedic experience when I watched Undressed. Luckily for me, because every night is based on a new audience story, I can talk about the show I saw with no fear of spoilers. On Jan. 21, the actors of Undressed performed the story of a middle-aged man trying to improve his mental health in the gym accidentally attending an “aqualates” class intended for elderly women and staying until the end out of politeness. The concept of water pilates is amusing enough on its own, but they really took it to the next level, spinning the tale from a bet made to get our leading man to the gym into a love story and redemptive mental health journey.
The most baffling part to me, of course, was the musical aspect. Improvising in speech seems difficult enough, but coming up with a tune and lyrics on the spot over improvised instrumentals? Unthinkable. But the performers made it look downright easy, coming up with verses, choruses and catchy refrains, synergetic to the point they were able to harmonize completely off the cuff.
As each moment built, laughter swelling from the audience, I remembered one of the parting thoughts Kaplan had left me with during our interview: “If you have the choice to love something or hate something in a scene, choose to love it.” Certainly, it felt like each of the actors on that stage loved everything they were doing. It was that passion and commitment and utter fun that made the experience so uniquely enjoyable.
Don’t fret — you have a chance to see your own performance too! Undressed: The Musical is running at the Kitchen Theatre Company for another weekend. Get your tickets for one of the shows from Jan. 28 to 31 at 7 p.m. at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca. You’ll never know what you’re going to see on that stage — not until the actors are reading out those little slips of paper, and everyone’s already laughing uproariously despite the fact that the acting hasn’t even begun.
Melissa Moon is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
Melissa Moon is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is an Assistant Arts & Culture Editor on the 143rd Editorial Board. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
