‘Midnight Fantasy’ moves it — swiftly — at Luxor

Friday, March 12, 2004 | 8:30 a.m.

In one cowboy number the troupe of topless dancers cover their bosoms with 10-gallon hats, which for a couple of the performers appear to be a quart low.

It isn't about base carnality, even though the cast includes some of the sexiest women on a Las Vegas stage.

Heck, it isn't even about midnight, since the shows are at 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

The 75-minute, adults-only revue at Luxor is about having fun, and fans have been enjoying this entertaining romp through fantasyland for almost five years.

The fast-paced production moves too quickly to be vulgar, never dwelling too long on one fantasy or one sensuous move.

It is too well-staged to be crass.

This week the production unveiled new costumes for the opening number, which also is new. Gone are the heavy gold capes, which have been replaced by a sheer, lightweight fabric that wastes no time in getting to one of the main attractions -- lots of skin.

Choreographer Tiger Martina has done a brilliant job in developing routines that display the dancers' assets to their best advantage, but without creating an air of salaciousness.

He has a lot to work with. The women are not only beautiful, but talented dancers who do great justice to Martina's choreography, which is so fine tuned that every motion is precisely planned.

The cast includes lead dancer Jennifer Young, Season Northstrom, Christine Jenks, Natasha Bernasek, Stephanie Smith, Dar Brzezinski, Jennifer Lynn, Amy Jacobs and Lisa Leieritz.

The dancers are not plastic (at least not for the most part). While some adult shows have casts that are almost identical in shape and size, as if poured from a single mold, the girls of "Midnight Fantasy" come in a variety of body types.

And their movements are natural and fluid, compared to the robotic routines of a couple of other productions.

Their enthusiasm reaches beyond the footlights of the Pharaoh's Theater and into the audience, which is almost an even mix of men and women. Wives and girlfriends have no reason to feel threatened by anything that takes place onstage.

The most vulgar part of the show is comedian Carole Montgomery, and even her material is presented in an inoffensive manner.

She reminds one of Rusty Warren, the bawdy female comic from the '50s and '60s whose 1959 album, "Knockers Up," called for women to shed their sexual inhibitions.

"Wow! You sound good," a fully clothed Montgomery grinned broadly as she bounded onto the stage. "You're in a good mood, yes?

"I see some of the men are disappointed, huh? You expected me to be topless. Believe me, you don't want to see my (chest). I'm 45 years old. I breast fed a child. I could wear them as a scarf -- OK, yeah, there's one guy, 'Yeah, let's see them anyway, so they're droopy. We don't care.' "

The remainder of her material is too explicit for a family newspaper, but hilarious in the theater.

Montgomery was a highlight of the evening, as were tap dancer Lindell Blake and vocalist Stephanie Jordan.

The muscular Blake bared his chest; Jordan (a physical fitness trainer) did not.

Jordan has an impressive resume, performing with such entertainers as David Cassidy, Pink, The Doobie Brothers and the Oakridge Boys. She was an understudy for Sheena Easton.

Even without exposing herself, the sultry Jordan is as sexy and provocative as any of the hoofers as she belted out such tunes as the Dixie Chicks' "Let 'er Rip" and Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel Like a Woman."

There are several outstanding dance routines, one of which is performed to the tune "Black Velvet." Two dancers are connected by a long piece of elastic as they go through a series of movements, avoiding becoming hopelessly entangled. The routine requires precision, as do most of the dances in the production.

One of the sexiest dances of the evening was one in which the girls started out wearing black pinstriped suits, white shirts, ties and felt hats.

The dancers were almost naked by the end of the energetic routine, but the only ones breathing heavily were the fans.

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