"Crazy" For You

By Bobbie Katz

EXCLUSIVE TO VEGASINSIDETIPS

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES

In the dark showroom, right in front of your eyes, a beautiful girl reclines on a bed, provocatively posturing to reflect her beautiful nearly-nude body in the soft patterned lights. As the bed turns and the sexy undulations increase, you ask yourself, with your eyes wide open are you dreaming?, Or could it be that you’re witnessing a new spin on Las Vegas entertainment?

With the latter being the case, the naked truth is that the very intent is to drive you “Crazy.” And the only remedy (if you really want one) is simply to take two tickets and rejoice about it in the morning.

No ands, ifs or butts about it, this latest version of “Crazy Girls” at the Riviera, one of the longest running revues on the Las Vegas Strip, is the edgiest so far. Having just undergone a complete transformation to celebrate its 20th anniversary, complete with four new girls in the 9-member cast and 10 new numbers, the show is looking to combine beauty, sensuality, class, and unique choreography and lighting into controversy by design.

“It was the initial controversy about the show that helped us get our audience after I debuted it at the hotel on September 17, 1986,” says Norbert Aleman,creator/producer of the revue. “I was the first to bring this kind of revue to the Strip and people were not used to that kind of show. In the beginning, a few of the numbers offended people and some actually walked out. Then Senator O’Donnell and the County tried to ban my ‘No Ands, Ifs and Butts’ billboards and cab backs. So people wanted to see the show out of curiosity.”

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“But audiences have evolved over the last 20 years – they are more liberated, more Europeanized, more accepting of nudity,” he continues. “That’s why for our 20th anniversary, I wanted a change that was totally fresh and different. This show is sexier, more aggressive, revealing and artistic. I wanted to be more controversial. I wanted to be the first again to be more avant-garde and to be copied once more. So many shows have tried to copy ‘Crazy Girls’ but haven’t survived.”

Aleman describes “Crazy Girls” as the symbol of a beautiful woman, as seen by himself and every normal man. In some respects, such as in the staging and lighting patterns on the girls’ bodies, the show resembles the ‘Crazy Horse’ show in Paris, which was its original intent. In fact, when Meschulam Riklis, who owned the Riviera back then, was looking for an original, show to put into the hotel, Aleman, who had come here from his native Paris in 1976, proposed a ‘Crazy Horse-like revue.

“I knew the creator of the Crazy Horse, Alain Bernardin, and his original choreographer, Victor Abshaw, and I were good friends,” Aleman relates. “I had danced with Victor at the “Lido de Paris” in Paris. I asked Bernardin if he had any intention of doing the ‘Crazy Horse’ in Las Vegas and he told me that it belonged to Paris and would stay in Paris. He gave me his blessing to do a like show in Vegas and I brought over Victor and his team to do the choreography, lighting and more.”

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The similarities stop there, however. According to Aleman, French women are kind of flat and there is no glamour in France as there is in America. As a result, the show has been “Vegasized,” infused with much more energy, heart, sexuality and love, as well as more glamorous costumes and colorful wigs, than its predecessor.

Aleman is currently in the process of creating a “Crazy Girls” reality show, for which he is talking to the Bravo Network, and in February he starts filming a “Crazy Girls” movie called “Crazy Girls Undercover,” which he is talking to HBO or Showtime about buying. To get these things accomplished, he has turned over the reins of the show and the title of producer to Karen Raider, who has been company manager for the last five years since quitting dancing in the show. Raider was one of the original “Crazy Girls,” who performed a pole dance to Eartha Kitt’s “How Could You Believe Me?” one of the few older numbers that still remains in the production, and calls Aleman her mentor.

“We’ve really pushed the envelope this time,” she says about the changes in the revue. “But the show never crosses the line to pornography and everything is done in good taste. Over time, you get to know what’s too much for an audience. There are ways to reign things in, such as with the lighting. But the girls are all a class act.”

“There’s a definite place for this show in this town and it’s made a name for itself,” she sums up. “It’s sexy but playful with a naughtiness to it and the girls are beautiful. And it’s something people aren’t going to see at home.”

That’s why Aleman and Raider are still “Crazy” after all these years.

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ADDITIONAL ARTICLES BY BOBBIE KATZ HERE