Peepshow at Planet Hollywood

"PEEPSHOW is the new, sophisticated, ultra-hot show starring pop superstar Mel B (of the world famous Spice Girls) and General Hospital’s Kelly Monaco (Dancing with the Stars champion). PEEPSHOW is a full-throttle production show accompanied by a red-hot live band and 25 sizzling dancers and performers from the worlds of pop music, film, television and Broadway. Created by an award-winning team, PEEPSHOW combines sexy striptease, playful storytelling and celebrity star power."

I got to see this show while I was in Las Vegas for the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender, and it was definitely some fun!

peepshow2

When I can, I try to go to burlesque shows that happen outside of the burlesque community of which I'm a part. I want to have an informed opinion, after all.

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” http://www.geocities.com/fitquotation/index.htm

Of course the above quote is meant to apply to weightier discussions than debates about what constitutes real burlesque, but when you hear how heated those debates can get, it might seem as if nothing has more gravitas!

In fact, Peepshow is definitely burlesque, if missing the sideshow energy and diversity that characterizes the community that makes my life worth living. In place of those elements, however, it has the kind of big production values, including live music (Mel B! For reals!), that many of our living legends of burlesque say they miss in modern burlesque.

The lobby featured some pinup mosaics and a corset-laced ceiling. I'm a sucker for a sexy room. It was the perfect entry for the show.

peepshow1

Peepshow has a deliberately thin plot line about a vaguely Bo Peepish young woman, played by a rotating cast of celebrities (Kelly Monaco when I went, currently Holly Madison), searching for love and sexual satisfaction. But the plot isn't the point, silly rabbit. It's all about the gimmicks!

Three of my favorite features of the show were: a dancer bursting through a brick wall, wearing brick pasties (a Pastie Punchline!); a group pole dance; and a trapeze act that took place on a suspended saddle.

The show also featured male performers, including an "audience participation" number and an amazing bathtub act, which I had previously seen in Absinthe.

My absolutely favorite number was a milk bath that took place in an elevated clear tank. Three women in the "milk" pressed various body parts against the front of the tank, creating the cutest, naughtiest silhouettes!

While Peepshow didn't blow my mind and change my life the way the weekend of shows at the BHOF weekender did (and have faith, I'll have a worthy article on that shortly), it definitely made me laugh and hoot and whisper, "Hawwwwt!" to my show date. So if you're in Vegas and you like the creativity, sauciness, and unapologetic fun of burlesque, check it out!

Peepshow Website

Posted by Jo Weldon, Headmistress of The New York School of Burlesque, for burlesquedaily.blogspot.com.

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