Backstage with… the stars of Welcome To Chippendales – charting the murderous history of the American dance troupe

When you see that a new show about the Chippendales is starting on Disney+, your first reaction is probably: “Oh cute, those little animated squirrels who are best friends with Mickey Mouse!”

But no. It’s not the Rescue Rangers.

Instead, a drama about the drug-filled and murderous history of one of the most iconic dance troupes in America, the Chippendales, has hit the streamer – you know, the buff lads that take their clothes off for their adoring audience of (largely, but not exclusively, women).

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With an all-star cast, Welcome To Chippendales tells the story of US immigrant Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee (played by Marvel star Kumail Nanjiani) and his rise to fame, and infamy, and finally his fall from grace, all in the name of keeping his raunchy revue show alive at any cost.

Joining Nanjiani is Broadway icon Annaleigh Ashford, who plays Banerjee’s wife Irene, White Lotus star Murray Bartlett as troupe choreographer Nick De Noia and Dan Stevens as Paul Snider – the man who killed his Playboy model wife in a fit of jealousy.

“The Chippendales dancers are sort of an American icon, if you will,” Ashford explained to Backstage, the TV and film podcast from Sky News.

“They’re sort of a funny part of pop culture that came about in the late seventies and kind of lived through the early nineties.”

She added: “Since the dawn of time, we’ve been watching men get to watch women take their clothes off, so it took until 1970 for women to watch men take their clothes off.

“That’s always been sort of… Chippendales culture that I think is fascinating – but basically, we think of collars and cuffs and men taking their pants off for ladies. Finally.”

Ashford also explained that her mother’s love of true-crime meant she knew about the troupe’s murky history.

“My mom watches a lot of true-crime shows, and so she had told me about it many moons ago.

“Lots of murder and in lots of different places and very, very shocking. The kind of story that if you wrote it from your brain, we’d all say, ‘that’s too crazy. That would never happen in real life’.

“So that’s obviously why we needed to make a television show about it.”

But while Ashford was tapped in to what the Chippendales are – Nanjiani had less of an idea.

“I honestly didn’t know much about the story behind it until this project came my way,” he admitted to Backstage.

“I didn’t know that it was an immigrant who started Chippendales, I didn’t know that it had this like sort of sordid backstory with, you know, the sex and drugs. The arson and murder were surprising – so I really had no idea until… the creator of our show told me what happens episode by episode.

“And that’s when I found out all of this. I had no idea about any of this. Chippendales is a part of pop culture… but the story behind it surprisingly is not.”

When asked what made them want to play the roles, one a murderous strip club owner and the other his dutiful wife, Ashford replied: “We crave characters who are complicated, who have high stakes, who have challenges, and the circumstances of this story are just a wonderful sort of breeding ground for all of those complicated things to navigate as a character and as an actor.

“Just if anything, I was happy to say yes, to dive into some good wigs and wardrobe.”

Nanjiani fired back: “I thought you said it was because of me that you wanted to do it. You said the reason you were doing it was because of me. What? I don’t know what all this stuff is…?”

Ashford said that of course her co-star was one of the “puzzle pieces” as to why wanted to take the role, with Nanjiani joking: “I just want to be a piece of the puzzle.”

Welcome To Chippendales is streaming now on Disney+ – hear our team’s review on this week’s Backstage, the TV and film podcast from Sky News.