To be part of Magic Mike Live, the male dancers go through an extensive interview process that begins with the question: “What’s your relationship like with your mother?”

Created and directed by Channing Tatum, the show is meant to offer a more empowering and feminist take on male strip shows. After launching residencies in Las Vegas and London, the show is now set to come to New York City starting in October in a newly renovated space in the midtown theater district.  

“You are going to see naked men dancing. That’s just what’s going to happen, and hopefully they’ll be on top of you at some point. But there’s also so much more that’s embedded into the show,” Tatum said Tuesday to a crowd of hard-hat wearing media in the gutted venue space.

Tatum also says this immediately after the show’s dancers had performed an athletic dance number that included ripping off their shirts and thrusting to Ginuwine’s “Pony.” But the actor insists that the show has little to do with male strip shows of the past, which he says could be embarrassing and degrading to women, and, despite sharing the name, little to do with the first Magic Mike film. 

The success of the 2012 film, which stars Tatum and which the team self-financed, felt like winning the lottery, he says. He believes it captured the public’s attention, in part, because it was “swept up in this 50 Shades of Grey movement.” The idea for the film came as Tatum had wanted to make a film with one of his favorite directors, Steven Soderbergh, and told him about his 10 months working as a male stripper. But he calls it “a bit of a feathered fish,” in that it was a movie meant for women but was not entirely speaking to their desires, and spent the time afterwards picking apart the movie and trying to figure out what worked and what to do next. 

He landed on the format for the live show, which launched close to a decade ago in Las Vegas, after sitting in an anonymous confession booth in midtown New York and asking women what they really want in life. The New York show will also feature five new numbers, with the dance style centered in hip-hop, in addition to Latin, Jazz, aerial and a water number. 

“Our main character in the show is Mike, and he’s this guy that kind of starts out with this innocent dude and learns all these lessons throughout the night and learns about himself and learns about women, but at the end of the show is this fully realized version of himself,” said choreographer Alison Faulk.

The cast includes professional dancers from around the world who have worked with artists ranging from Doechii to Katy Perry to Matilda the Musical. In addition to being “beautiful men” and having a good relationship with their mothers, the creative team looked for “really kind, amazing men” who could easily approach women. 

“It’s not that easy to give a lap dance. To enter someone’s space is awkward,” Tatum said. “You either kind of have it or you don’t. And we’ve found all the men who really are good at it.”

Tatum himself may also make an unannounced appearance at a forthcoming New York show, as he says he previously learned the “water routine” and has not yet been able to perform it. (“There’s no version of me not doing this at some point,” he said.)

The venue, which was once an automat and more recently the newest location of the Copacabana club, is currently an active construction zone, as the crew plans to raise the roof up to allow for a 2.5 story working bar, a stage, with the audience sitting in the round, and viewing platforms on all levels.

The space is also set to feature two lounges, with Authentic Hospitality, the group behind Pebble Bar, Jac’s on Bond, and Ray’s, curating one for 200 people and Tatum curating a smaller lounge for 50 people (“You want to get a lap dance in private. You don’t want to do it in an auditorium,” Tatum notes.) 

The shows in London and Vegas are going into their eighth and ninth years respectively, and given the investment in the new space, the creative team is hoping the New York show is there for a decade or more. 

“We hope to be here as long as Lion King,” Tatum quips.