Welcome to Chippendales premieres on Nov. 22 on Hulu.
Since its founding in 1979, Chippendales has become an international sensation with its dancers performing elaborately choreographed stripteases to delighted women at clubs and touring shows around the world. The story of the business’ founding is somehow just as salacious as its shows, and the first two episodes of Hulu’s miniseries Welcome to Chippendales provides an alluring introduction to a sexy and sinister tale of the relentless pursuit of the American dream.
Loosely based on the book Deadly Dance: The Chippendale’s Murders by K. Scot Macdonald and Patrick MontesDeOca, Welcome to Chippendales stars Kumail Nanjiani as Somen “Steve” Banerjee, an Indian immigrant obsessed with status and elegance. He takes all of the money he saves from spending a decade managing a gas station and opens a backgammon club which fails to attract customers until nightclub promoter Paul Snider (Dan Stevens) shows up with his Playboy Playmate girlfriend Dorothy Stratten (Nicola Peltz) and promises to help turn everything around.
The show delivers an entertaining montage of the ways Paul tries to bring customers into Steve’s club, originally called the Destiny II, including mud wrestling and an eating contest. But it’s a trip to a gay bar with Dorothy that provides the real inspiration for Steve to create a strip club catering to women. What starts as a lucrative if low brow affair gets a classy overhaul with the help of choreographer Nick de Noia (Murray Bartlett), who trains dancers to deliver the intricate themed numbers that would make Chippendales famous.
Nanjiani was nominated for an Emmy for playing a standup comedian willing to make a deal with the devil for success in The Twilight Zone, and he brings the same underdog charm with a dark bite to Steve. A brutal early scene showing the petty cruelty of shoplifters at Steve’s convenience store helps to establish his understandable desire to escape that life, even as he looks at a group of his former colleagues relaxing together at a restaurant with a keen sense of jealousy.
Steve’s experience with discrimination fuels both his ambition and understandable paranoia as he faces people all too willing to try to take advantage of him or challenge his control over his own business. His fascination with the trappings of class in America is both a strength — allowing him to catch a con man wearing a knockoff Rolex — and a weakness because he’s desperate to avoid having his club be thought of as tawdry.
Stevens brings a compelling mix of swagger and desperation to Paul, who immediately clashes with Nick’s more confident charms as he works to expand his role from consultant to partner. Nick in turn feels threatened by the ambitions of one of his most promising dancers, Otis (Quentin Plair), who wants to follow Steve’s example as an entrepreneur of color rather than just spending his nights being manhandled for tips tucked in his g-string. Otis provides a way to develop both characters, showing off Steve’s keen eye for talent and the way Nick views his performers as his personal playthings.
Kumail Nanjiani brings a powerful mix of charm and darkness to his portrayal of the founder of Chippendales.
The business is a tinderbox of interpersonal and professional conflict brought to life by a strong supporting cast. Steve becomes smitten with accountant Irene (Annaleigh Ashford) through an adorably dorky flirtation framed by how much money she can save him through little tricks like increasing the amount of ice in the drinks. Nick uses that relationship as an excuse to bring on his own hire Denise (Juliette Lewis), an amateur costume designer who comes up with a brilliant innovation for the shows that she demonstrates with audacious flair.
All of that drama is set against the hedonistic backdrop of Los Angeles in the early 1980s, a time when birth control had created a sexual revolution that hadn’t yet been chilled by the AIDS crisis. Welcome to Chippendales is packed with butt shots as the men don’t just gyrate on stage but have sex with customers throughout the club, often while doing copious amounts of cocaine. With disco making a comeback, it’s easy to see the appeal of a party that seems like it will never stop, even when the dark ending has already been written.
The show also captures the relentless pull of fame and fortune baked into Los Angeles. Paul is terrified that Dorothy will leave him for someone better, Nick is afraid he’s become a has-been who works on a mediocre children’s show, and Irene doesn’t want to be just any accountant, but a Hollywood accountant because she’s utterly thrilled by even the most mundane celebrity encounter. Steve is also keenly aware of how relentless the city’s desire for the new is and how all of his ambitions hinge on his ability to keep the club’s appeal fresh. It’s a setting perfect for intrigue that promises to deliver even higher stakes over the course of the eight-episode miniseries.
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