REVIEW:

‘Jubilee!’: Topless and timeless

Vestige of Old Vegas entertainment is gaudy, prismatic, classic and … gay?

Leila Navidi

In a show mostly revolving around spectacular entrances, the curtain closes on performer Brooke Opheim at the end of a scene of “Jubilee!” on Saturday at Bally’s.

By Joe Brown (contact)

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Jubilee!

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Jubilee! backstage tour

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What: Donn Arden’s “Jubilee!”
When: 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday-Thursday
Where: Jubilee! Theater at Bally’s
Admission: $52.50-$112.50; 634-3434, ballyslasvegas.com
Running time: 90 minutes
Audience advisory: The 7:30 p.m. show on Saturday is covered (not topless)

Joe Brown Reviews

Jubilee!, the Strip's longest-running show, reaches 28 years (7-31-2009)
Past's last reflection (7-30-2009)
Venerable 'Jubilee!' shows no signs of flagging at Bally's (9-3-2004)
'Jubilee' a quintessential Las Vegas production (12-18-1998)
Refurbished 'Jubilee' a real treat (7-11-1997)

How to convey the contradictory feelings provoked by “Jubilee!,” the wonderfully awful, terribly terrific, 28-year-old Las Vegas showgirl spectacular at Bally’s?

“Jubilee!” is:

• The sort of show I imagined I’d be seeing all the time in Las Vegas, with squadrons of showgirls carefully descending mirrored staircases while balancing colossal feathered headdresses. Sadly, it’s the last of its kind.

• One of the inspirations for Bette Midler’s “The Showgirl Must Go On” across the street at Caesars Palace. At half the price for a decent seat, “Jubilee!” makes Midler’s showgirl homage look drab and tasteful in comparison.

• Also the apparent inspiration for “Showgirls,” universally acclaimed as one of the worst-best movies ever made. But the gaudy, grandiose production numbers in “Jubilee!” are thrillingly, appallingly, hilariously, endearingly real. I thought my colleague was kidding when he told me the sinking of the “Titanic” is reenacted onstage.

• A total time warp: Think “The Lawrence Welk Show” (or “The Love Boat”) with breasts. The closest it comes to the past millennium is mid-70s discorobics. Clean-cut fellas and begowned gals croon (and more often than not pantomime) show tunes and standards to loud but innocuously orchestrated prerecorded tracks. For best results, try to erase a half-century’s worth of irony and cynicism from your consciousness. Just have fun.

• Ostensibly a “topless” revue, and it does in fact deliver dozens of (eerily identical) bare breasts. But the effect — multiple blank-eyed, grinning Stepford-clone mannequins — is oddly heatless and anesthetic.

• Not just populated by showgirls, by the way. They don’t show them in the TV ads and billboards, but there are also often about two-dozen nearly nekkid guys dominating the stage.

• The single gayest show I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a dozen Pride parades in San Francisco. Eyebrows plucked to a near nonexistence, the aforementioned chorus boys do back bends in studded leather jockstraps in more than one set piece. And I swear a couple of the guys doubled as gals in the Titanic segment. Sporting Furby-scale eyelashes and Bozo lipliner, some of the showgirls are less convincing as females than Frank Marino’s “La Cage” posse.

• Home to a handful of entertaining specialty acts, most notably a pair of metallicized male gymnasts, bald, silvery supermen who perform feats of Vegas-ized yoga (including an astonishing slo-mo forward fall) and look like twin Bond villains or Oscar statues in a fight to the death.

• A living shrine to costume designer Bob Mackie, famous for Cher’s most outre get-ups. Mackie’s Erte-inspired fantasias, sequined carwash skirts and serpentine minidresses actually outdo Cher’s wardrobe and might inspire envious insecurity in Bjork.

•The stage for a topless wedding scene in which the gravity-defying bride sports a sci-fi orbital corona, while the fully clad groom croons “I Married an Angel.”

• A gaudy homage to the “more everything!” styles of such great stage and screen directors as Flo Ziegfield, Busby Berkeley and Irwin Allen. The late producer/choreographer Donn Arden gave himself above-the-title billing, and gave showgirls every sort of Big Entrance you can imagine: Frequently multiplied by mirrors, they descend on swings, pop from peek-a-boo balconies, and shimmer and shimmy down heavenly stairways. “Jubilee!” is pretty much all entrances, come to think of it.

• Jaw-droppingly random and rampantly campy, zigging from Rockettes-style kicklines to patriotic, Branson-ready tap dancers, and zagging to the Samson and Delilah story, reenacted in Cecil B. DeMille Biblical epic style — climaxing with a hunky Samson tearing down a temple, finally crushed under a gigantic demon head with blazing red eyes.

• Putting Spinal Tap to shame.

• The last stand of a glorious Old Vegas style of showbiz, now that “Folies Bergere” has left the building.

• A small economy in itself: “Jubilee!” employs more than 100 dancers, singers and technicians, including people who keep the feathers fluffed and rhinestones sparkling.

• Apparently not doing so well, business-wise: On Tuesday night ushers were handing out free tickets to the show at the bottom of the Bally’s escalators.

• Utter escapism and a timeless civic treasure.

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By vegasj

8/3/09 at 5:05 a.m.

Suggest removal

Metro says prostitution stings are on the way for these type of shows.
By DarEl

8/5/09 at 5:23 p.m.

Suggest removal

Vegasj- What?!?! Have you even seen the show? Jubilee is a highly respected show comprised of professional dancers and singers. I also have it on good authority that one cast member moonlights as a long standing Las Vegas Metro officer. He would never be associated with anything improper or illegal. Jubilee is a classy revue spectacular. Get your facts straight and your ignorant mind out of the gutter.
By Sbatmanm

8/5/09 at 10:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

Well, after reading this article, I'm shocked!!
1: the singers sing all there songs live. We do have added vocals on tracks to add a fuller sound.

2: Jubilee really prefers "natural" women.

3: Our women wear about the same amount and style as the Lido & Moulin Rouge shows.

4: The only part of the show that the men aren't wearing tuxedos and suits is Samson & Deliah. And you obviously don't know the difference between a Jockstrap and G string. Wow!!!!

5: To say guys double as women is really uncalled for! This is a show known
worldwide for Beautiful showgirls!!! If they are not your type, fine. But don't mock
them.

6: in my 13 years here, I've never seen ushers in their red coats handing out tickets.
By Sbatmanm

8/5/09 at 11:14 p.m.

Suggest removal

For proper review go to the following http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/new...
By cater

8/10/09 at 2:20 a.m.

Suggest removal

As a 10 year retired veteran of Casino de Paris and The Lido de Paris, I never experienced working with men in women's roles. The Las Vegas revues were never created to be anything but fantasy, exotic, and imaginative performances for the viewing public to get lost in. They were designed for the purpose of distraction, titillation,and provocation of the public from their losses in the casinos and entertainment of the masses who didn't necessarily always gamble. If Mr. Brown doesn't acknowledge this fact from the beginning of his review, he doesn't begin to understand the meaning of the word "entertainment," and should reconsider his position as a constructive "critic." Las vegas revues never designed to be theatrical art to the gambling public, they were the slight of hand art to keep one from leaving the tables of the casinos.
By blackcat1938

8/17/09 at 1:43 p.m.

Suggest removal

In 1960 I came with the Lido de Paris from Paris, I fell in love with Las Vegas at that time, with the weather, the mountains and the little town that was then Las Vegas.
Now I cannot abide Las Vegas and if I could sell my house and return to England I would in a minute. Unfortunately, Mr. Brown typifies the new Las Vegas and pokes fun at something he knows nothing about. I am surprised at the Las Vegas Sun, a paper for which I have the utmost respect having such a person on their staff.
I worked for eleven years with the Lido de Paris, Casino de Paris, and the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana. I would also like to take exception with his comment about male dancers masquerading as Showgirls, that is just about the most absurd comment I have ever read.
Truly, is this person a serious critic?
By blackcat1938

8/17/09 at 1:50 p.m.

Suggest removal

After posting my comment, I just thought of the perfect word for Mr. Brown, SNARKY.
By ccohen

9/8/09 at 10:22 p.m.

Suggest removal

What a tasteless article. This is like criticising black and white movies for not being in color, or saying historical museums have outdated items, or the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign should be taken down and replaced. Las Vegas is known for its history, and the Las Vegas Showgirl is an icon. Never to be forgotten. Always revered, respected, glamorized, and celebrated by our city Mayor at every meaningful event. The epitome of beauty, grace, dedication to the classic art of dance, and showbusiness itself. I find this article to be a direct insult to the city of entertainment, and the journalist should take the advise that we were all given by our parents; "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all". Very insensitive article, economically threatening, and inaccurate on several accounts.