An attorney claims Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's strip club crackdown is hypocritical about legal nudity - that an all-male revue is legitimate but topless women are being singled out unfairly.
"If 'Naked Boys' is legitimate, then why can't we present a revue with topless women?" asks Mark Alonso, who represents Ten's, a topless club forced by city law to reserve more than 60 percent of its floor space for "non-adult" -- less profitable - uses, says the New York Post.
Alonso says Naked Boys Singing at the Actors Playhouse is considered non-adult; thus, Ten's should be allowed to stage a similar show with topless women in its non-adult section.
He's filed a court action over the question, the Post says. "Clearly, the city does not mind nudity," Alonso argues in court papers. "It merely holds that 'illegitimate' nudity is outlawed on the non-adult side of Ten's, [so] Ten's should be allowed to present a 'legitimate' theatrical production on the 'non-adult' side, even if it has nudity."
Needless to say, the Giuliani Administration demurs. "The law recognizes a difference between theatrical productions and businesses that provide adult entertainment," criminal justice coordinator Steven Fishner tells the Post.
The producers of Naked Boys Singing appreciate the irony of their show being held forth in the court papers as a model, the paper continues. "We've worked very hard to be legitimate theater," says co-producer Hugh Hayes. "We're an equity production! We've gotten terrific reviews! Our guys have Broadway credits, which, I imagine, is different from the show [Alonso] is talking about."
Alonso isn't a stranger to entertainment headlines - in 1999, he told the city Ten's couldn't be considered an adult establishment because it began allowing minors inside. That idea was struck down post haste.
