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By 1972 theatergoers in New York City, at least, were beyond shock, and Oh! Calcutta! closed. Four years later Keanrevived it, sensing a whole new audience in the tourists flocking to the city for the bicentennial. Through good years and bad, the show has been running ever since at Broadway's Edison Theater, drawing strongly, Kean says, from the West Coast and the Midwest. Audiences are still often nervous at the beginning. New actors, on the other hand, are so busy learning routines that the fact they are standing naked occurs to them only weeks after they start. "Suddenly I realized, 'Oh, my God, I'm out here nude!'" recalls Cheryl Hartley, who has been with the show since 1977. But eventually nudity becomes a costume, just like any other.
About a third of those who now see the show are Asian, mostly Japanese, who are not allowed such fleshly delights in their own country. Frontal nudity is forbidden on Japanese stages, and the pubic regions of Playboy centerfolds are covered with ink before they are allowed on news stands. "The sex drive is international; so is human curiosity," says Sherman Yellen, another of Calcutta's twelve happy writers, each of whom still gets approximately $7,000 a year in royalties.
Capitalizing on Oriental interest in the all-too-unmysterious Occident, Kean advertises in Japan and in places that Japanese tourists frequent in New York City; he has even raised a bilingual billboard on Broadway. This month he will begin renting earphones for a simultaneous Japanese translation. Besides the body language, which has an international accent, there are real words in Oh! Calcutta!, some of them fairly amusing. In fact, five of the 13 segments display no nudity at all.
There are places besides Japan where the production is still banned, including, astonishingly enough, Las Vegas. But Kean broke the barrier of traditional Latin prudery, and native companies have done well in Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Last month he breached another wall. Reversing an earlier decision, Israel's board of censorship agreed that the show can play in Tel Aviv, beginning in late March. Oh! Calcutta!, which has already made $360 million, will go on and probably make another $360 million. The children of the original audiences are now coming to see it, and their children doubt less will too. Michael Clarke, a member of the current Broadway cast, was all of seven on opening night in 1969 and expects the show to be around when he is 70. "As long as there is sex," he predicts, "there will be Oh! Calcutta!" --By Gerald Clarke. Reported by Jeanne McDowell/New York