Naked show is perfect for theater buffs

IT’S AN age-old trick to calm pre-performance butterflies: Imagine your audience is naked.

That’ll be a snap on Sunday for the cast of the Off-Broadway play “Afterglow,” since everyone in the play and watching it will be in their birthday suit.

The special presentation is hosted by Go Naked, a male-identifying nudist group. There is one optional exception to the nodress code.

“Except for shoes — it’s OK to leave them on,” a Go Naked member who’ll be at the play told the Daily News.

The Go Naked theatergoer added that the event isn’t about hooking up.

“It’s not about sexual drives or being an exhibitionist,” he said. “There’s something more authentic about the connection you can make when you’re naked.”

“Afterglow” follows a married gay couple who welcomes a third person into the relationship — and then deals with the consequences. Emotions are as naked as the actors.

Playwright S. Asher Gelman, who is from Tel Aviv, told The News there’s “more nudity than Americans are used to.”

“But the nudity in the show is not a gimmick,” he said. “It’s meant to be an exploration of the way we are in real life. Nudity can be very unsexy.”

The event is not the first of its kind.

Earlier this month, a London revival of “Hair” — a hippie-happy musical famous for nudity and the song “Aquarius” — presented a clothing-optional performance.