Producing cringe exercise videos starring male strippers is one way to achieve your American (financial) dreams. Somen “Steve†Banerjee, for example, pulled himself up by his bow ties to create a male-stripper empire, the Chippendales. Whether intentionally or not, he weaponized the tide of second-wave feminism to make a ton of cash off of women’s hard-won sexual freedom in the 1980s, promising a fantasy in exchange for paid lap dances. The capitalist tragedy about a cash business with a seedy underbelly will get a new life on Hulu with a series from the creators of Pam & Tommy led by Eternals’ Kumail Nanjiani as Banerjee.
The show’s new trailer shows tantalizing tidbits — with Nanjiani starting small and working his way up to king of the male strippers. Figuring heavily in the trailer is Murray Bartlett as Nanjiani’s employee turned enemy in the world of sexy, sexy boys. Perhaps most important is the intensified version of Journey’s “Anyway You Want It.†Ah, the ’80s.
The podcast Welcome to Your Fantasy previously documented the events that led to the murder of the creative force behind the Chippendales with more than 100 hours of footage and 60 interviews, opting for a layered approach to the complicated tale. Annaleigh Ashford stars in this TV adaptation alongside Juliette Lewis, Andrew Rannells, Dan Stevens, Quentin Plair, Robin de Jesús, and Nicola Peltz. The stripper drama takes the stage on Hulu on November 22.