Friday, July 09, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOW REVIEWS: "La Femme" and "V -- The Ultimate Variety Show"

Cabaret is alive, well done on the Strip: MGM's `La Femme,' Aladdin's `V -- The Ultimate Variety Show' find success on a deliberately small scale

"La Femme" recently entered its fourth year with a new edition and at least six new numbers. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

It's against our nature to think small in Las Vegas, so you can forgive all the little shows over the years that thought the only way to survive was to copy the big ones.

But three years ago, "La Femme" came from Paris to the MGM Grand Hotel to show something done on a deliberately small scale could be as well-considered and elaborate as Cirque du Soleil.

Now, a downsized "V -- The Ultimate Variety Show" shows that little is lost in the move from the recently closed Showroom at the Venetian to a former nightclub in the Desert Passage mall at the Aladdin.

Sure, you sort of miss the Chinese pole climbers and flying men who opened the show two years ago. But producer David Saxe has honed his concept -- originally a revolving door of specialty acts from around the world -- to a stock company of applause-tested favorites.

Lo and behold, the crowdpleasers are the ones offering more laughs than acrobatic thrills. With cocktail seating replacing rows of theater seats in what's now called the V Theatre, "V," along with "La Femme," proves cabaret is alive and well on the Strip, even if nobody on the Strip is exactly sure what cabaret is.

The inspiration for "V" was to fill a whole show with the acts who fled to cruise ships with the demise of traditional floor shows. "V" brought them back to demonstrate that in the computer era, a live performer interacting with an audience is reason enough in its own right, without a fancy theme.

The durability of the formula was proven last week, when many of the regular acts were in San Francisco to open a new edition of "V" on Pier 39. A shuffled lineup put two jugglers -- Wally Eastwood and Michael Holly -- back to back, and it hardly mattered.

Eastwood was the deftly physical act, a juggling Fred Astaire. Holly was the dry (by Vegas standards) prankster, juggling two bowling balls and a tiny M&M candy while pretending the crowd couldn't follow his running banter: "You guys are looking at me like an Amish guy in Circuit City."

The usual host is manic comedy-magician Jeff Hobson (Holly handled the emcee duties at this show), back with "V" after a stint in his own longform showcase at The Excalibur. The core group also includes a hand balancing act -- Trilogy at this show -- and either Jason Byrne or the team of Nathan and Sarah as magicians.

Two other regulars defy categorization beyond the odd feeling that, yes, kids, you really could try this at home. Russ Merlin rushes back and forth between "V" and Saxe's "Showgirls of Magic" at the San Remo with a routine in which he puts Halloween masks on four members of the audience. It's as simple as that, but it never fails to kill.

Joe Trammel is a prop comic who basically changes clothes real fast to snippets of music. He was in San Francisco this night, and it's just as well when he and Merlin aren't on the same bill. "V" holds up without the spectacle, but you don't want "the ultimate variety show" to get too much like "The Gong Show."

There's a Trammel-like act in "La Femme" as well, called The Quiddlers. They do a bit called "Micro Jackson" that makes the dethroned king of pop look like a midget.

It's the exception to an otherwise classy girlie show, which recently went into its fourth year with a new edition that includes at least six new numbers. Those who have seen "La Femme" before probably will have a tough time pinpointing the new pieces in a show that plays less like live entertainment than a movie, inside a stage shaped like a cinema screen.

You aren't likely to remember specifics as much as the overall concept of symmetrical topless beauties painted in kaleidoscopic patterns of light; sort of like making a whole show out of James Bond opening credits. The $59 confection (expensive drinks not included) is a lot like taking the money you would usually pay for dinner and instead going to Le Cirque just for dessert.

For the record, the additions include a piece called "Fly," featuring elevated swings, and one called "Beauty Boudoir" that makes clever use of white wigs, swinging doors and pink squares of projected light. "Blue Taboo" offers three women on a set of steps, the erotic exception to a show that generally downplays salaciousness in favor of "the feminine form as modern art," as a narrator explains.

The new show also brings each of the 12 dancers out between numbers to cavort to campy narration right out of a men's magazine caption: "... this will make her roar in voluptuous pleasure," or "she's the epicurean (who will) do anything to satisfy your desires."

None of these changes really hurt "La Femme" as much as the familiarity of having seen it before. Like that dessert, the first impression is the one that lingers.