If at first you don't succeed...

Three shows on the Strip are in various stages of what appears to be the latest trend: Opting for major revisions instead of pulling the plug or waiting for a miraculous shift in public opinion.

The Rio's topless rock revue "Erocktica" closed Monday for an overhaul and is scheduled to return in October. A hotel press release says the show will undergo "a complete transformation," including new sets, more production value and "new creative and thematic elements." The girlie show with live rock band opened in February.

"We Will Rock You" celebrated its first birthday at Paris Las Vegas recently by cutting a fourth of the show's two-hour running time. However, most of the slicing involved the flabby, jokey script and the ax fell on only one song, the little-known Queen tune "Hammer to Fall."

Most cryptically, "Le Reve" at Wynn Las Vegas is promising big changes this fall. The aquatic spectacle is "getting better by the minute," hotel Chairman Steve Wynn said a few weeks ago, proclaiming, "We will have the best show in town by October."

You can add "Zumanity" to the list if you count the ongoing changes that will continue up to a Sept. 20 party celebrating the start of the Cirque du Soleil revue's third year at New York-New York.

The "failure is not an option" option makes sense. It takes a lot of cash to open and promote these shows, and "Le Reve" in particular would burn a lot of money by switching to headliners in its customized theater.

Audience response to "Rock You" will be particularly interesting. Technically, audiences are getting less for their money, yet some close to the production say the speeded-up version is a big improvement. The changes were made with the participation of writer-director Ben Elton.

At least part of the problem has been the lack of Broadway-type "rules" for previews. Some shows, such as "Ka," were able to stave off big-city critics by declaring a preview period that put them off limits to reviewers who respect the custom. But they still charged full price for tickets and send unknowing audiences out with less-than-impressed reactions.

"Le Reve" creator Franco Dragone "wasn't finished with the show when he opened it and he shouldn't have done it," Wynn said. "And that's as simple a way of saying it." ...

There still has been no formal announcement, but the Calendar section of Carrot Top's official Web site confirms a three-year Luxor residency reported in this column a couple of weeks ago. The red-headed prop comic has his schedule blocked out for the casino from 2006 through 2008. ...

Also at Luxor, another member of the Wayne Newton-produced reality show "The Entertainer" has a job on the Strip. Paul Sperrazza is a member of Toxic Audio, a vocal quintet that sings harmony and mimics musical instruments in the manner made most famous by Bobby McFerrin.

The quintet is booked at Luxor through Nov. 16. Sperrazza was billed as "The Wild One" on the E! reality series. But he was too wild for Newton who, in the Donald Trump "Apprentice" role, sent him home in the second episode for drinking in the suite instead of playing the reality show's reindeer games.

The show's winner, the single-named Delisco, has a guest spot in Newton's summer run at the Las Vegas Hilton and is scheduled to headline there later this year. Toxic Audio shares a mezzanine-level theater with the topless revue "Fantasy," which was "Midnight Fantasy" until recently. ...

Speaking of topless revues, country fans on the Strip are apparently less into the wholesome family-values stuff than you might think. Producer David Saxe says attendance at topless performances of his new "Buck Wild!" has so outnumbered that of the "covered" shows that he has reversed the original schedule. There now are six topless performances and four "family" shows. "And if that trend continues we'll go all topless," he says. ...

The variety revue "No MSG" closed Sunday after two weeks in the Chinatown Plaza shopping center. Show publicist Frank Lieberman says the revue was hurt by long setbacks, red tape and costly physical improvements in obtaining operating permits; something producers of casino entertainment don't have to deal with. But Lieberman says producer Jerry Schafer plans to reopen the show or stage another one in the performance space once all the compliance issues are settled.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears on Thursdays and Sundays.