VegasChatter

Eric Jordan Young is the Candyman

Seeing as it was a rehearsal, we’re not going to give you a proper verdict until we see it properly. But what we will say is that it’s totally different from what we expected.

First up, there’s no real plot as such. It starts in the Neon Boneyard and the idea is that you suddenly/magically get transported back to Vegas as it was, and live through the highlights – basically a load of songs from each of the periods.

That’s not actually as cringy as it sounds – we actually dug the fact that there wasn’t a spurious plot forced on the whole thing (that’s one of our main bugbears about Cirque – just show us your twiddly bits/hit songs. We don’t need you to invent something dumb).

What we also dug was that, although they cover loads of Vegas performers (the Rat Pack, Tom Jones, Elvis, Elton John), it’s not a tribute show. The singers aren’t (at least, they weren't on Friday) straining to do full-on imitations – it was more like them, as themselves, singing the main songs. Again, given that we’re not the biggest fans of impersonators (apart from our Pet Elvis Tim Welch, obvs), this we took as a good thing.

Of course, what this means is that it’s all about the music (which is good, because although the set was much better than we expected, it was still looking a wee bit basic on Friday). Luckily, there’s a stonking band (13 people, from what we could see, so they haven’t scrimped on manpower) and the lead singers are pretty bloody good. We’d go as far as to say that two of them were pretty bloody fantastic on Friday night – Reva Rice, the female lead, and Tom Lowe, who totally stole the show rehearsal with his deliciously homoerotic rendition of It’s Not Unusual.

Tom Lowe doing What’s New Pussycat. More on him tomorrow.

Plus there’s a gaggle of sexy dancers who manage to transcend the sometimes cheap-looking costumes they’re stuffed into (pink thongs, we’re looking right at you). If you’re, erm, into bums, you will be a happy bunny.

Depending on your gender/orientation, this picture will inspire uncontrolled emotions of either envy or lust

In short, it’s not the showgirl-stuffed glitterfest that we’d expected, so if you take your lead from the posters, you may be a little thrown, but it’s definitely an interesting one. We can’t wait to see it in its final form. Because, against all the odds, as long as they don’t start taking themselves too seriously, this might actually be good.

In the meantime (hint hint) if someone wants to do an actual Cristal Connors-y showgirls show, we’ll be right in the front row. Ta!