So you're a convert to this ballroom dancing thing because of "Dancing with the Stars," and the big show is here at the Thomas & Mack on Saturday?

Go, my friend. Sail on the evening breeze. But take comfort in knowing that if you can't get there -- or can't get enough of the stuff -- "Simply Ballroom" will be waiting for you at the Golden Nugget.

You will just have to accept in advance that -- and this is a very weird thing to say -- you will miss those twin Joeys, Lawrence and McIntyre.

In other words, the modest little show at the Nugget will test your ballroom mettle. Are you still hooked on the young couples and their precision moves without the C-list celebs as your lead-footed comic surrogates? It's a painless way to find out.

While "Burn the Floor" recently gave ballroom the theatrical "Riverdance" treatment, "Simply" is a British import that plays very much like a TV show from the deep cable regions. The BBC America illusion is enhanced by hosts Noel Sullivan and Zoe Birkett, both alumni of British TV counterparts to "American Idol."

The singing hosts introduce five competition-level couples from Europe, South Africa and South America. Jokes and brief interviews with the couples further the TV approach, which works in the Nugget's cozy 600-seat theater because the audience is close enough to get to know everyone on a first-name basis.

The revue also is more instructional to ballroom novices than "Burn the Floor." Sullivan uses one couple, Andy Lane and Faye Huddleston, to demonstrate the difference between a "social" and "competitive" quickstep, and offers a history lesson on how the Napoleonic wars forever changed the waltz in England.

At times, it's more than we want to know, and to the hosts' credit they quickstep through the narration with relative agility. (On nights with a livelier crowd, they might allow more time for their jokes to sink in. At this pre-Christmas performance, it probably wouldn't have mattered.)

And while Sullivan sports this weird New Romantic haircut -- Pee-wee Herman doing Elvis? -- he plays the Brit host as suave beyond his years and has a good vocal range for the recorded music ranging from "Mas Que Nada" to 1970's soul-chuggin' "Vehicle."

Producer Jon Conway affords the dancers a handsome series of costume changes and lighting effects within the restricted limits of the stage size. The first half of the show seems a bit rote and shy on ballroom's implicit sex appeal. But things heat up with a techno-flavored tango number, and the show really catches stride at the midpoint, when the dancers square off in an informal competition judged by audience applause.

The whole thing is over in little more than an hour, a pleasant if fairly undramatic one. New 3 p.m. weekend matinees starting Jan. 6 can only further the show's natural inclination toward older and/or bargain-driven audiences. And if Conway or the Nugget expect more from this venture? Well, really, how much could it cost to get one of the Joeys?

A quick word on the new theater, remodeled from the former Theatre Ballroom. While the tiered rows of theater seats are a comfortable improvement, the height of the stage is still limited (by the spa on the overhead floor). And unless you're near the center aisle, it's hard to see the dancers feet. Those on the far sides also can expect to be blasted by side-stacked speakers because there wasn't room to hang them overhead. Eye the seating chart accordingly.