The word for the Rhinebeck’s Center for Performing Arts production of “The Full Monty” is “rollicking.” Jerry Lukowski (Kurt Tallardy Jr.), one of many desperate, unemployed factory workers in Buffalo, comes up with a plan to make some money: set up a Chippendales-style strip show. Jerry entices Dave Bukatinsky (Thom Webb), his best friend, to hold tryouts, but first they must find someone to teach the men a dance routine. Jerry and Dave settle on Harold (Stefan Bolz), a suave supervisor at the plant who’s also been laid off but hasn’t told his wife Vicky (Cheryl DelVecchio), who is busy planning the couple’s next exotic vacation. The tryout scenes brought the almost-sold-out house to a near frenzy. When Horse (Nick Butler) swaggers in to audition, he indicates the lack of PC attitudes in the play by breaking into song with “Big Black Man.” Suffice it to say that when Ethan Girard (Michael Torbet) showed his stuff, the audience laughed so loud that the next several lines are inaudible. Accompanying the contenders on piano is Jeanette (Thomas Dammit); if the role wasn’t written to be played in drag, it should have been. (Not to mention this Jeanette has legs that put most women’s gams to shame.) She brings down the house with “Jeanette’s Show Biz Number,” in which she relates professional incidents in her past that have gone disastrously wrong—but, she belts, this production takes the (beef) cake for being bad. Before the denouement, poignant as well as comical moments seize center stage, as when Jerry sings to his sleeping son (“Breeze Off the River”). Tallardy’s Jerry commands the stage with presence and timing, and his is far and away the easiest body on the eyes; Webb as Dave is a loveable sidekick whose belly is the butt of joke and song. Horse, and his bad hip, take the blues to a new level and bring a whole other meaning to break-dancing. The musical, which won a Drama Desk Award after it was adapted from the 1997 British film, is produced by Johnny Dell and smartly directed and choreographed by Laurina Sepe Marder, with the lively backstage music led by musical director and keyboardist Liz Toleno. While the sets are a bit cumbersome and take some time to change between scenes, the cast shines during ensemble numbers and succeeds in bringing the audience along for the ride. “The Full Monty” runs at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck through May 22. For tickets and information, call 845-876-3080 or go to www.centerforperformingarts.org.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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