The "Folies" does a good job of recycling timeless props, such as the "showgirl swings," and features a classic visual style while using modern music such as Prince's "Baby Knows."

In a day when people are used to remixes of songs and director's cuts of movies, Las Vegas shows seem even more static when they resist change.

But Ari Levin, the Tropicana's entertainment director, may have pioneered the "production show mash-up," thanks to the unusual circumstances surrounding the casino and its historic "Les Folies Bergere."

You can't pump significant money into the Strip's longest-running show because the casino is widely acknowledged to be on borrowed time after a bidding war for owner Aztar Corp. Either an implosion or a significant remodeling could drop the curtain on the classic showgirl revue that has been around since 1959.

But you can't just let it go either. Customers can sense when a show has been allowed to slide into stagnation. Note last Saturday's closing of the 21-year-old "Splash, which offered too little too late with a sketchy overhaul last year.

So what do you do?

Levin has cut-and-pasted "Folies," initiating changes to its running order and losing a couple of segments while restoring its signature cancan sequence to its original length.

(He is able to do this because "Folies" is one of the last "house productions" on the Strip, where the hotel foots the payroll instead of farming out creative and financial decisions to an outside producer. In this case, longtime director/choreographer Jerry Jackson got on board after Levin initiated the changes. But the degree of collaboration is a bit murky, and apparently a bit touchy as well.)

Though it lacked the budget to change the major production numbers, the show has better transitions from one scene to the next and generally comes off as more "performed," compared with the presentational, showgirls-on-parade feel of the old-Vegas spectaculars.

The better moments, such as the reshuffled opening, celebrate the showgirl as an icon. (On nights with two shows, the second is topless with the early one subbing flesh-tone bras.)

A prologue shows the women "backstage" in their dressing room -- "Fifteen minutes till curtain!" -- while singer Traci Ault walks through the crowd for her first song. When the first showgirl (usually "Survivor" contestant Janu Tornell) finally appears, it's by herself under a sign spelling out the name of the show. She continues to interact with the male dancers before she's finally joined by the chorus line of showgirls usually revealed with the opening curtain.

Ault and Dan O'Brien interact more with one another now, and O'Brien spends less time reeling off stale narration about the changing role of women through the ages. Small touches help the show get from one number to the next, such as O'Brien's catching sight of a costumed dancer and saying "She's on her way to an opulent ball. Let's follow her."

The production numbers are still a mixed bag, from a classy tango sequence with black-clad dancers and George Gerswhin music, to a goofy 1950s sock-hop scene that should be Fed-Exed to Bible Belt fun mecca Branson, Mo., with all due haste.

But the lone specialty act, wry comic juggler Michael Holly, adds a contemporary flavor to balance what is, for the most part, an agreeably retro atmosphere. From an adagio in the "snow" by featured dancers Stephanie Shaw and Chris Nicholson to the athletic flips and cartwheels of the cancan finale -- moved from the middle of the show -- it's the rare touch of authentic classic Vegas.

Perhaps an enterprising cable network will combine "Project Runway" and "Project Greenlight" into a new reality series, "Project Folies," giving young choreographers another shot at a remix.

More dramatic lighting and upgrades in the Tropicana's sound system also work in favor of the afternoon show, "Xtreme Magic starring Dirk Arthur," which has just signed a year's extension. Levin has tightened and rearranged this show as well, though producer David Saxe says a bigger makeover with several new illusions is in the works for the end of the year.

Arthur already had a fast-moving hour crammed full of big illusions, such as making Amtrak engines and helicopters appear onstage. He always had a tougher time balancing the tricks -- most of them variations on "girl goes into box, gets turned into tiger" -- with a commanding stage personality.

But in time, he's polished some quick "Where are you from?" jokes and an obligatory segment using a youth from the audience. They're enough to establish him as the driving force of a show, even if he spends more time hot-footing it to recorded music, getting down to the business of the illusions, not the comedy stuff that's better left to others.

The Tropicana is offering Nevadans two-for-one "Folies" tickets this month (and the Folies program includes a two-for-one offer for the magic show). Together, the discount and the tweaks make this piece of Las Vegas history worthwhile for newcomers or those who remember the "Folies" from way back, but were afraid to have their memories spoiled.