Las Vegas Nude Showgirls Revisited
More on how to spend an afternoon with a Las Vegas Showgirl
Jubilee is the only Vegas show that still features nude showgirls. By planning your Vegas visit you can spend an afternoon with one of them. Here's how.
There are certain things associated with Las Vegas. Gambling, Elvis Presley, weddings and showgirls. When my friend Richard Grant (no, not Richard E. Grant) told me he'd been to Vegas and spent the afternoon with a Las Vegas Showgirl, I wasn't sure if I ought to ask him to tell me about it. But I did, and here's what he had to say.
You can read the first part of Richard Grant's account of his afternoon with a Las Vegas Showgirl by clicking here.
Our tour guide, Paula Allen, has been with Jubilee for eight years and is now one of the four featured dancers. Paula began dancing in Disney shows and has been dancing all her life. What soon becomes obvious is that while showgirls may look glamorous, there is little glamour in being a showgirl.
The cramped dressing rooms are two stories below the stage. Paula has 11 costume changes, which makes each show like an hour on a Stairmaster. 'The stairs on stage are 12 inches high, twice normal height,' she says. 'Walking down those in high heels, wearing a 20 pound costume, a headdress that sticks out three feet on each side, hitting your mark to avoid bumping into the other 85 dancers…and doing it topless…is quite a challenge.'
'Was it difficult going topless?' someone in our group asks.
'That’s a good question,' Paula says, pretending she’s never heard it before. She worked in the show four years before going nude, but going topless is the only way to become a featured dancer. 'Sometimes people in the audience are embarrassed during the first act, which features all 50 nude dancers,' Paula says. 'They are afraid to make eye contact with the dancers and they look all around. But by the second number they’re used to it and by the end of the show the nudity is no big deal. It’s just Vegas.'
The tour visits the sets, props and backdrops that become everything from the boiler room of the Titanic to Samson’s great temple. Giant elevators can whisk 100,000 pounds of sets up to the stage in seconds.
Some of the headdresses are so huge they are suspended above on ropes and must be lowered on to the dancer’s head. Every type of feather, from peacock to vulture, has been used in the costumes, which were originally designed by Bob Mackie. His sketches are in the costume shop, where all costumes are made and repaired.
Unfortunately, the outfits are so elaborate, they can only be washed once a week. 'The good news is that everyone has their own personal set of costumes, so you get to wear your own stink,' Paula says.
She adds, 'All the dancers are like a big family.' Some are married, some have children. The oldest dancer retired at 51. They are some of the hardest working and most talented dancers in Las Vegas. And – at least during their moment in the spotlight – some of the most glamorous.
If You Go:
Jubilee has been a Las Vegas staple since 1981 and has been seen by more than 9 million people. The one-hour Jubilee! Backstage Walking Tour is offered every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:50 a.m. and is open to everyone over the age of 13. Tickets are $11. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster. Click here.
Jubilee is performed at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., Sat.-Thurs. with ticket prices running $65-$82.
