

Ah, the 1980s. Forever associated, in film, TV, and theater, with shoulder pads, big hair, cocaine, and more cocaine. It makes sense that the invention of male exotic dancers took place in the “greed is good” era of American pop culture, but it is slightly more surprising to learn that the inventor in question was a Bengali man, originally from Mumbai, named Somen Banerjee. And while intriguing narratives abound in “Welcome to Chippendales,” the new Hulu limited series about Banerjee’s short life, almost all the stories are torn between showing and telling, criticizing and empathizing. Unable to pick a side, or do justice to both, the writing falls flat, taking the actors down with it.
The backgammon club, with the assistance of sleaze-tastic club promoter Paul Snider (a dynamite Dan Stevens, alas limited to a guest role), hosts disco dancing, female mud wrestlers, and perhaps least hygienically of all, oyster-eating contests. But after a lightbulb moment at a gay bar, Banerjee creates the concept of the male exotic dancer, named for one of his heroes, 18th-century British cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale. At this classy club, men will writhe and grind as they shed their clothing, while women hoot, holler, and stuff cash into the nearest g-string. But just having men thrust themselves into women’s laps would make Banerjee’s club no different from a seedy strip joint. So, in 1981, he hires Emmy-winning choreographer Nick di Noia (Murray Bartlett) to design the club’s dance routines, without which we would not have Chris Farley’s Chippendales sketches on “Saturday Night Live” or the “Magic Mike” franchise.
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