Talk about a chicken-and-egg game. You can't really understand "Matsuri," aka "The Muscle Musical" without seeing it. But how can you get someone to see it until they understand what it's about?

Well, you could say it's a little of "Stomp" meets Richard Simmons, crossed with Cirque du Soleil by way of "MXC" (or "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge"), that crazy Japanese thing with the obstacle course that airs on Spike cable.

Yeah, that about explains it.

The show dropped into the Riviera this week, bringing many of its 33 Japanese cast members to the United States for the first time. The show is booked through April 29, and it plays in the afternoons except on Fridays, the dark day for the resident production "Splash."

Dropping in on a rehearsal last week I saw 32-year-old Olympian Daisuke Hakata change his clothes in midair while jumping on a trampoline. In another sequence, a single-note melody on a piano causes each person to athletically respond to their note.

And there's a very cool segment based on taiko drumming, only without the drums. The ensemble makes the drum sounds by stomping on giant wooden boxes or pounding on their own bodies. That leads to a lot of black-and-blue thighs and Jacuzzi time after the show, according to the group's translator.

It all started in Japan with "Kinniku-banzuke," a TV special that set athletic performances to music. Musical director Ryoji Nakamura followed up with the live version in 2002, which has become an ongoing hit and now tests the waters outside Japan.

Nakamura calls the show "a new type of musical theater."

"I gathered many sort of experiences in my life, various elements from various theatrical experiences. It could be Charlie Chaplin, maybe inspiration from a famous Japanese baseball player. It all comes from my heroes from all over the world."

The Las Vegas version is basically a greatest-hits edition, taking the "Matsuri" name -- which means "festival" -- from one of the latter versions, which now has different themes each year.

"Because the title has 'muscle,' people have this image of these bodybuilders, says petite 29-year-old dance captain Sayaka Asami. "It's more of using the muscles of your body and making noises from it instead of singing. Most of it is body slapping and making noises with parts of the body."

The show has at least two things in common with Cirque: It has no spoken words to present a language barrier, and it's one where athletes with various skills were cross-trained to perform as an ensemble.

Hakata says through a translator, that his friends ask him what part of the show he's in, and he tells them, "Every part."

"I'm in so many different styles of dance. 'Muscle Musical' allows everybody to participate and show other qualities of the athlete," he says. And he's enjoying the laughs he never hears at the Olympics. "Being a gymnast is a very serious thing to do," he says. "Something like this, with comedy involved, they laugh through it all. Obvously that's the greater feeling."

And, as Hans and Franz of "Saturday Night Live" used to say, it will pump you up. "Instead of just entertaining them," says Hiromitsu Takahashi, who is in charge of the foot-drumming segment, "I want the audience to go home energized and feel like they received some power from watching the show." ...

Drops and adds: "Menopause The Musical" added two shows per week to its schedule starting this week. The total of 10 per week is something it planned from the outset by double-casting the four-woman show. Half the shows are now in the daytime: 2 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; 4 p.m. Saturdays; and 5 pm. Sundays.

Meanwhile, "Hairspray" trims down from 10 to eight shows beginning next week, losing two 10 p.m. starts and adding a Sunday matinee. A show publicist says this was an option from the beginning. My response? Great. An eight-show schedule means that performances can run longer than 90 minutes under Actors Equity union stipulations. So why not give Susan Anton back her song and add back some dialogue?

"Then they'd have to pull all those creators back in from New York," says the publicist.

On a related note, if "Hairspray" lasts until at least the summer of 2007, it could get a big boost from the oft-rumored movie version. New Line has reportedly made "pay-or-play" deals with John Travolta and Queen Latifah for the roles played in Las Vegas by Harvey Fierstein and Fran Jaye. ...

Finally, I was corrected on last week's report that the Scintas will close at the Rio by the end of this month. It turns out they will stick around at the Rio until May 3 before moving to the Sahara.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.