Theatre review: Tender (Soho Theatre)

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: The show has not yet officially opened to critics. Dave Harris' Tender is the latest play to deal with a modern crisis of masculinity, although maybe one without quite the same level of toxicity as some of its predecessors. Darren Bennett plays a former adult performer who now leads a trio of male strippers called the Dancing Bears: Exploiting a loophole in New Jersey law, they are to all intents and purposes prostitutes, the mostly-female clientèle being allowed to do a lot more than just look when the men take their clothes off. But business has been tailing off lately, which turns out to be largely down to a new copycat club opening down the road - where the performers are a bit fresher, better dancers, and a couple of inches better-hung. The club's owner sends her daughter in to freshen up the show, but having previously attempted to be an artist and then a therapist, Bea (Jessie Mei Li) is less interested in choreography and more in deconstructing the men's…

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