COLUMN: Mike Weatherford

Another male strip show lands in Las Vegas

The national media is apparently jumping en masse on Las Vegas' "return to Sin City" topless trend, chasing a USA Today cover story that ran Feb. 15.

That means it's still going to be playing catch-up to the latest variation, which is perhaps the natural reaction to all that female stripping.

In other words, it's raining men.

"Chippendales: The Show" moves into the Rio on Thursday to make three male revues in the resort corridor. It follows "Thunder From Down Under" at the New Frontier and arrives just ahead of "The Cast of Playgirl," which earlier announced it will open March 14 at The Beach nightclub.

"Chippendales" has a two-year deal in the Masquerade Village Showroom, with six shows weekly and a 10:30 p.m. slot most nights. (The show gets the 9 p.m. slot while early-evening headliners The Scintas are on vacation until March 15.)

The show retains the name of the now-defunct Los Angeles club that put male-stripping on the map in the '80s. But the real eye-opener is that this incarnation is produced by Louis Pearlman, the impresario behind the three most successful "boy bands," 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys and O-Town.

"You will recognize some of the physical language" in the choreography, says the show's spokeswoman, Judy Jacksina.

The revue opened last March in a New York nightclub with choreography by Glen Pakard and Brian Thomas, who have worked with the pop acts.

"It's a theatrical presentation, not `kiss and tip,' " says David Caldwell, the show's general manager. The dozen dancers will participate in choreographed numbers. "It's not just a nightclub `shake' thing."

The Chippendales' show visited the Rio for a test run last July. The Rio decided it would make a good late-night counterpart to "Showgirls," a female topless show that opens in the hotel's Samba Theatre in late March.

Curiously, "Chippendales" will be dark on Saturday, which you would expect to be a prime bachelorette night. Otherwise, the revue stands to serve as a strong lead-in to Club Rio, which had much of its limelight stolen by newer nightclub mousetraps, including Rain in the Desert across the street at The Palms.

Mike Davis, the Florida promoter of the Playgirl show, isn't discouraged by news of a three-way competition. "I have owned a dozen nightclubs in my life and would never consider building one that didn't have some competition nearby," he says.

The "Thunder" has the Australian hook, and Chippendales has "been around for decades," Davis says. But Playgirl "is the show of a new generation," and will feature guys from all over the world. "After all, the magazine is printed in dozens of countries and in dozens of languages." ...

Now back to the girlie shows:

"Tease" no longer faces a court injunction from a composer who claimed ownership of the name.

A court hearing in Los Angeles last week turned into a settlement conference, says Keith Cooper, the attorney who represented comedian-composer Dailey Pike.

Pike had collaborated with "Tease" producers Gary Ouellet and David Tumaroff on a Las Vegas version of his show "Gigolettes." After a falling out with Ouellet and Tumaroff, Pike registered the "Tease" name and claimed the "substantially similar" show was hurting his own prospects for "Gigolettes."

But Wednesday, Cooper said the two sides settled and agreed not to discuss the terms. "You're not going to see ("Tease") change its name," he says.

"I'm highly satisfied with the outcome," Pike says. ...

A '50s and '60s rock impersonators show, "Rockin' USA," will be the third show to occupy the Riviera's recently enclosed lounge, now the Le Bistro Theatre, under the auspices of singer Marlene Ricci. She performs at 8:30 p.m. daily except Monday and produces a 7 p.m. Neil Diamond tribute by Jay White.

George Trullinger, who for years played Buddy Holly in "Legends in Concert," helms the tribute that opens Friday in a 10 p.m. time slot. He had a similar revue, "The Heroes of Rock & Roll Show," playing the MGM Grand lounge in the afternoons until the post-Sept. 11 tourism dip.

Ray Anthony will co-star as Ritchie Valens, and Harry Shahoian will do the '50s and '60s Elvis Presley. Surprisingly, there's no plan for a '70s jumpsuit version of The King in a revue that also will get into some lesser heard Presley tunes, such as "I Was the One" and "Follow That Dream."

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Sundays and Tuesdays.

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