‘Folies’ to end a 49-year LV run

"Folies Bergere," the longest-running show on the Strip and one that helped make feathered showgirls the image of Las Vegas, will close March 28 after 49 years.

The Tropicana revue is giving way to another production, but hotel officials said they don't have a signed contract and so aren't ready to announce the title. The "Folies" closing was announced to give 60 days notice to about 80 performers and stagehands, said Tropicana spokeswoman Brittany Markarian.

Hotel president Ron Thacker did not comment beyond an official statement noting the revue's "amazing and unprecedented run." But it's likely the Tropicana, whose parent company is trying to reorganize and restructure $3 billion in debt, sought to move from employer to landlord.

"Folies," along with Bally's "Jubilee!," is one of the last "in-house" productions, in which cast and crew are direct employees of the casino. Most casinos now contract with outside producers who foot production expenses and pay cast members. Markarian said this will be the arrangement for the new show.

The Tropicana long ago assumed rights to the "Folies Bergere" name, which belongs to a historic Paris theater that still is in operation but no longer has a showgirl revue. Farming out both the name and financial risk to an outside producer was a third option, but "as far as I know there wasn't any talk of that," Markarian said.

"It's just sad that they have to do away with history and kind of a Las Vegas icon," said a longtime cast member, who asked that her name be withheld for fear of early termination. The cast was informed after Wednesday's show. But some already had suspicions because their current contracts expire Jan. 24, and they usually get new contracts a month before.

"It's kind of like hearing your childhood home has been sold," said Lance Burton, the Monte Carlo magician who was one of the "Folies" specialty acts from 1982 until 1991, when he left to open his own show.

The show has a long reach in Las Vegas. Alumni range from Siegfried & Roy to Vassili Sulich and Nancy Houssels, who started what became Nevada Ballet Theatre using show dancers with classical training.

"Folies" wasn't the first French showgirl revue. It opened on Christmas Day of 1959, a year and a half after the Stardust debuted with "Lido de Paris" in July 1958. Neither was the first to bare a female breast on the Strip; that honor went to a Minsky's burlesque in 1957. But the showgirl concept was still so new to the United States that United Press International writer Vernon Scott had to explain: "The so-called 'nude show girls' do not disrobe on stage -- they walk out on stage in spectacular skirts and headgear, and that's about it."

Producer Lou Walters (father of Barbara Walters) imported the revue in the wake of the Lido's runaway success, after the interim move of surrounding Jayne Mansfield with Parisian-style production numbers at the Tropicana. The costume budget for the original "Folies" was an estimated $100,000.

"Folies" eventually came under the creative control of Los Angeles producer Jerry Jackson, who started with the show in 1966 and took over as director in 1975. In its heyday, the revue was updated every year or two. But it went into a long period of creative limbo from 1983 to 1997, ultimately neglected by management indecision, turnover and ownership changes at the hotel.

Jackson added a new 15-minute finale in 2001. In 2006, then-entertainment director Ari Levin reshuffled and rewrote the revue without spending any significant new money, restoring its signature cancan sequence.

"The 'Folies' opened before I was born," said Burton, who was born four months later. "It is kind of surprising because that really is the end of an era." And no show is likely to surpass its track record. "Lido" closed in 1991 after 32 years, and "Jubilee!," which opened in 1981, would have to stay open until 2030 to surpass it.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.