Friday, November 12, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOW REVIEW: Like `La Femme,' only crazier

`Crazy Girls' looks more like a knockoff now, but the girlie-show institution's performers can hold their own with any revue in town

Tatty wigs aside, "Crazy Girls" stays in the topless show competition with strong solo numbers and a lustier strip-club vibe than some of its more demure competition.

They're outclassed, outnumbered and outspent. But these "Crazy Girls" don't run.

Competition can even be good for the Riviera's girlie-show institution, which marked its 17th year on the Strip in September. In that time, it has been affected as much by what's happened elsewhere in town as it as it has by internal change.

The "Girls" are now in the company of seven other cabaret-style revues, two of which ("X" and "Aussie Angels") have opened in as many weeks.

The pivotal change was the arrival of "La Femme" at the MGM Grand in the summer of 2001. A not-so-well-kept secret was now in the open for all to see: "Crazy Girls" producer Norbert Aleman had swiped the basic concept and large chunks of the actual show from the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris, figuring only jet-setters would know the difference. To this day, the posters in the "Crazy Girls" lobby even appear to be from the Horse.

To see "Crazy Girls" after the real Crazy Horse gals of "La Femme" (which changed its name in Las Vegas to avoid confusion) is to notice just how much of it is a lower-budget imitation, from the opening and closing chorus-line numbers to the kaleidoscopic lighting of the two women-and-a-bed antics of Kassia Rose and Fallon Matthews.

Should you just pay the extra $16.55 to see the real thing? It depends. First, you have to suspect a lot of people get into "Crazy Girls" on a discount or room-and-show deal. Plus, the drinks are cheaper.

But even if you pay full price, there are a few places where "Crazy Girls" goes its own way, embracing a more lusty American stripper-pole vibe than the demure aesthetic of "Le Femme."

Eliset Lobato illustrates the difference in her sexually charged shoe-shaped sofa number set to Led Zeppelin's thumping "I Can't Quit You Baby." As Robert Plant wails, "She's 19 years old, she's got ways just like a baby child," the topless Lobato sucks her thumb. "La Femme" would consider that to be in very poor taste. "Crazy" guys love it.

The show hasn't made any fundamental changes in the past three years, beyond some key cast members. Some of the chintzy wigs and props -- like the ones in the cutesy-poo number with hair curlers -- have been worn by so many people they should probably be taken out back and burned.

But Lobato and other solo performers can hold their own with any other revue in town. Kimberly Denmark, aka Lexus, reinvigorates the tired chair dance. Ruth Gastineau does slow turns in a revolving hoop, and Rayma Alfred lip-syncs the comic novelty numbers so well you almost believe she is singing them.

The contributions of two men in the cast are out of proportion to the number of women dragged along in the audience. Energized emcee Stuart May looks like a metrosexual version of Bill O'Reilly as he croons "She's A Lady" and dares a female audience member to "give us a little show."

Juggler Romano Frediani crashes in as a sort of mood-killer between two of the sultriest numbers in the show, but gets the audience into his ring-around-the-head act. Still, "Crazy Girls" is better when it has a good raunchy comedian to match the seedy cabaret vibe.

Still, the show is what it is. And an opening video montage reminds us it has a longer legacy than most on the Strip: "That's right, bronze butts," a younger George Knapp declares in a news clip about the now-famous statue out front.

But with so much competition, now is the time to spend some more money on these "Girls." (Or cut the ticket price; the more attractively staged "Midnight Fantasy" is now $9.50 less at Luxor). You'd hate for the statues out front to get more attention than the live women inside.