Friday, May 27, 2005 | 8:31 a.m.
Producer, director and choreographer Jeff Kutash is back in the swim of things at "Splash!," the adult revue he created at the Riviera in 1985.
Kutash says he sold his interest in the popular show in '96 to pursue other challenges that took him around the world.
Since then he has produced several other shows -- including a recent pilot for a television series ("Sports Wars") that proposes to pit professional athletes against amateurs in competitions to take place in Las Vegas. His partner in the venture is agent Leigh Steinberg, the inspiration for the 1996 film "Jerry Maguire."
Now he is home again, revitalizing the extravaganza that made his name famous in Las Vegas entertainment circles in the '80s and '90s.
"It's good to be back home at the Riviera," Kutash said. "It's good to be back in Vegas to participate in painting this canvas -- it's a privilege to do that.
"Vegas is one of the last playgrounds where artists can come and work and make their dreams come true -- it's not about the money, it's about the privilege of making your dreams come true."
Meshulam Riklis, the show's executive producer, asked Kutash to return to "Splash!" so he could rework the production that has become synonymous with Vegas, similar to the long-running rhinestone spectacles "Folies Bergere" at the Tropicana and "Jubilee!" at Bally's.
"I agreed, but only if I could do something unusual that no one else has done," Kutash said as he sat in the showroom he built, waiting for rehear-sals to begin.
He will be with the production at least until the end of the year to make sure the quality remains high.
Kutash spent months researching, rewriting and, to a degree, reinventing "Splash!"
For more than a month his cast has been squeezing in the practice sessions after the existing show wrapped for the night.
"We've been rehearsing for six weeks in small increments," Kutash said. "I would like to have two solid weeks of rehearsal, but that hasn't been possible. This is a work in progress."
The 20th anniversary version of "Splash!" will make its official premiere at the Riviera on June 21. But for fans eager to get a taste of things to come, the revamped topless revue will begin replacing elements of the old with the new beginning Tuesday.
"It will be a very soft opening," Kutash said. "Over the next three weeks we will be evolving, adding numbers as we go along; sweeten what we have, until it gets to the point when it is ready (for the grand opening)."
The new "Splash!" will highlight two celebrations -- its own 20 years in the limelight and Vegas' 100th birthday.
The theme of the latest reincarnation is "100 Years of Las Vegas Entertainment," keeping in step with the city's centennial.
Changes to the show include new dance numbers, some new cast members, more use of multimedia effects and a new speciality act -- 23-year-old Vitaly, a silk artist (an acrobat that uses silk cloth as a rope).
Despite the name, there still is no water in the production -- only an ice rink.
Kutash has a new arrangement and new staging for the production's signature song, "Splash!," which he wrote 20 years ago. And there will be a new version of his signature dance piece in the show, "Splashdance."
"One thing that has kept 'Splash!' contemporary is the changes in the show every year -- with new production numbers -- that have kept us current," Kutash said.
The new production will include four vignettes, each introduced by a documentary-style film about the history of Vegas entertainment.
The show will open with the history of "Splash!," one of the longest-running productions on the Strip.
Each segment will focus on a different period -- one will be from the birth of Las Vegas through the '50s, when Frank Sinatra, Sophie Tucker, Liberace, Bobby Darin, Wayne Newton and Elvis (a flop at the time) were among the headliners.
One of the major production numbers will be the "Viva Las Vegas" segment, spanning the '60s and '70s, when the Rat Pack was hot, Elvis was selling out all of his performances and Tom Jones was being buried under a deluge of women's underwear tossed onto the stage.
Another segment will be "Sex in the City."
"Where Vegas transforms into a sophisticated men's club genre of packaging, seduction and provocative entertainment," Kutash said.
And the show will look at what lies ahead for Vegas.
Several specialty acts have been carried over: Los Latin Cowboys (a gaucho act), the Richard Brothers (jugglers) and Riders of the Thunderdome (four motorcyclists who ride around in a large ball called "The Globe of Death").
"People are looking for a fresh edge, which is why the show changes every year and is the reason we've lasted 20 years," Kutash said.
The 60-year-old native of Cleveland says he is happy that he was asked to give new life to the baby he created.
" 'Splash!' set the benchmark for me in terms of producing," Kutash said. "And it's a great tuneup for me -- it gets me back into my fighting shape. I'm in familiar territory."
It's a territory in which Kutash has thrived most of his life, beginning in the early '60s in Cleveland when he was a teenage dancer with his own rock 'n' roll television show.
"Upbeat" was on in more than 100 markets. The legendary James Brown caught the show and liked Kutash's moves.
"I was the only white boy dancing like a black kid, something I learned on the streets," he said. "Brown saw me and was impressed -- he said, 'I've never seen a white boy dance like that.' "
Brown invited Kutash to work with him.
"On the way to the arena the first day I was stabbed in the leg. It required 16 stitches," Kutash recalled. "When I showed up for work I said, 'Mr. Brown, we are blood brothers' -- and we bonded from that moment on."
Kutash worked with Brown off and on for more than 20 years.
Kutash also worked with Dick Clark, performing as a dancer in Clark's "Good ol' Rock 'n' Roll" revue that opened at the Las Vegas Hilton (then the International) in 1974.
Elvis was in a booth on opening night.
"Elvis was my hero, and there I was dancing for him," Kutash recalled.
He says he got so carried away with his dance number on the first night that he ended up with a double hernia and never danced professionally again.
"I turned to choreography and directing," Kutash said.
He put together Dancin' Machine, a street dance group, in the '70s. Street dancing was hot at the time and Kutash was at the vanguard.
Dance fever
Steve Wynn hired Dancin' Machine to work at the Golden Nugget in Vegas and Atlantic City in 1977.
"Kenny Rogers was my opening act," Kutash said.
The Dancin' Machine performed at several casinos, including the Tropicana, Stardust and others.
"And then I cloned it," Kutash said. "I had four companies performing around the world -- it was the premier American street dance group in the world."
The group opened for Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. -- as individual acts, never as the Rat Pack.
Kutash co-hosted the national TV show "Midnight Special" with the late Wolfman Jack. Michael Jackson watched the show and liked Kutash's choreography.
"He saw me on 'Midnight Special' and asked me to teach him some dance moves," Kutash said.
Kutash represented Electric Boogaloo, a group of street dancers he says he found on a street corner. Among the members was Popin Pete.
"Popin Pete taught Michael Jackson how to do the Backslide -- which Jackson called the Moon Walk," he said.
Kutash says Jackson still does a lot of the moves he learned from Popin Pete and the Electric Boogaloo.
Another celebrity who owes a debt of gratitude to Kutash is John Travolta.
"All the athletic moves he did in the movie 'Saturday Night Fever' he learned from me and my dancers," Kutash said.
He said Travolta saw the Dancin' Machine in Los Angeles and then approached Kutash about learning some of their moves.
"I had no idea he was going to do a movie," Kutash said. "I put two of my dancers with him for three months to teach him the moves."
When the movie came out and Kutash saw the dancing, he was upset.
"I called him and asked him why he didn't give me any credit in the film," Kutash said. "He finally gave us credit in an article that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine -- and my career really took off from there."
Even though his career is based on dance, Kutash has never had a lesson.
"I learned on my feet," he said. "I'm not a big fan of legitimate dance. I was always bored by straight dancing. I like to make an audience jump out of their chairs. I like to move people with the drama of music and dance. I like to do a show where every number is a showstopper.
"In 'Splash!' every number is a show within a show."
The production hit its peak in the mid-'90s when there were three shows running at the same time -- Vegas, Reno and Tokyo.
Since "Splash!" premiered in 1985, production costs have soared in Vegas -- fueled by mega-expensive shows created by Cirque du Soleil ("Ka" at more than $160 million and "Zumanity" at more than $60 million).
Kutash says his show doesn't compare to Cirque.
"It's apples and oranges," Kutash said. "If you want to spend $125 to see a show, you're competing with other $125 dollar shows.
"If you want to spend half that, then that is the tier of shows we are in -- we're certainly in the tier of the 'Blue Man Groups' of the world, and 'Mamma Mia!' "
He says he likes the level of "Splash!"
"We're at that tier where it's the content that is being judged, not the spectacle," Kutash said.
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