Thursday, July 2, 2009

My Take on PEEPSHOW

NO, I don’t have pics so if you came here to see Holly’s breasts I’d suggest going elsewhere.

I’ve had the opportunity to see PEEPSHOW at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas twice so far (once with each set of lead performers) and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is overall. Sure, you can go to just about any strip cub around town and see more flesh if you are so inclined but that’s not what this show is about really.

PEEPSHOW’s storyline is basically Bo Peep’s dream (played previously by Kelly Monaco and now Holly Madison) of classic fairy tales gone awry. I would prefer not go into too much detail because I don’t want to ruin it for those anxious to see the show.

I will, however, compare what I call PEEPSHOW 1.0 (with Mel B. and Kelly Monaco) and PEEPSHOW 2.0 (with Shoshana Bean and Holly Madison).

Overall, the differences are subtle and not noticeable to most attendees. In version 1.0 the dancers, when topless, wore pasties for the most part and in version 2.0 they do not. To me, it didn’t make a difference either way in the sexiness or quality of the show. My favorite dancer is the spunky Keltie Colleen who plays the piggy in the straw house in the 3 little pigs scene (she’s so cute and a fellow Twitter girl) but the entire cast of dancers are all very talented as well as beautiful and the costuming and choreography is just fabulous. And ladies, there is lots of eye candy for us as well: the male dancers are all uber hot…especially the guy who plays the big bad wolf and the one in the bathtub scene (are they one in the same?!? I’m not sure…should have brought my binoculars!)

Mel B. (of Spice Girls fame) wore very revealing costumes (though never topless) and her voice has much more of a raspy, Rock ‘n’ Roll vibe where Shoshana Bean (swept from musical theater, most notably from the Wicked touring company) is more modest in her costume but her voice is stronger and, dare I say, much more pleasant than Mel’s, especially in a theater setting.

The biggest difference between version 1.0 and 2.0 is the character of Bo Peep. Kelly Monaco’s take was quite different than that of Holly Madison. Now taking into account that when I saw Kelly it was well into her 3 month run so she had had time to get comfortable in the role and on the stage and in comparison I saw Holly on opening night. Kelly came off as a wholesome, innocent girl-next-door, her smile sincere and her dance moves effortless and smooth. Holly, on the other hand, does project some of that same wholesomeness that the roles needs and is cute with a slamming body but her smile as well as her dance moves seem, well, not so smooth. When the spotlight was not on Holly I could see her fidgeting and playing with her hair which, for me, was distracting. I think it was just nerves – after all it was opening night – so it would be interesting to go back in a few weeks to see if she’s worked that all out.

One more change that I’d like to note is that the size of the band from version 1.0 to 2.0 drastically reduced in size as well as one less backup singer. I didn’t even notice until my hubby (a musician and editor of Front of House magazine) pointed out the band’s catwalk area above the stage seemed much less crowded than it did in version 1.0. Major props to Jeffrey “JJ” Hillman, the sound guy, who made this change virtually undetectable. (BTW: thanks for the tickets…you rock!)

So, I give PEEPSHOW two thumbs up with a snap. It’s a fun sexy time without the sleaze and great for a “date night” with your significant other. One last thing: if the “saddle” scene, accompanied by the Pony song by Ginuwine, doesn’t get you all revved up and ready to go then you seriously need medication. Seriously.

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Posted at 5:23 pm. Tagged: Holly Madison, las vegas, Peepshow, Planet Hollywood, shoshana bean, vegas
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Thursday, June 11, 2009

CineVegas 09 Opening Night 6/10

CineVegas 09 has begun!

Day 1: Opening Night at Planet Hollywood
The Movie: Saint John of Las Vegas

Well, I have now done my first Red Carpet event. And I have to say that I’m so glad I don’t do this for a living because it’s not as easy as it looks. For me, I think I’ll keep my day job.

Day 1 for me began with going over to the Palms to pick up my press credential at CineVegas Headquarters which takes up a nice size conference room. The staff is friendly and efficient and had me on my way in mere minutes. So far, so good.

I head over to Planet Hollywood with time to spare as media check-in wasn’t until 5:30PM and I got there way before 5PM. They had the various types of media sectioned off with still photographers (like me) in a small section at the beginning of the carpet and the broadcast media along the rest of the rope. The coordinator with the clipboard and checklist called out our names one by one and let us into our little section. Luckily, with the name of Linda Evans, I was one of the first in and i got a primo spot right along the rope. This should be good.

I notice right away that the lights set up by CineVegas are behind and above us, creating shadows of our heads/bodies onto the red carpet. Then I notice that the backprop is extremely reflective and creating hot spots when you use flash. Hmmm….not sure how to compensate for this. I usually shoot concerts and rely mainly on existing show lights so this is all new to me. After some test shots using a test subject (a photog from Getty Images) I figure out that I definitely have to use the flash with a diffuser to help keep the hot spots down to a minimum and fill in some of the weird shadows.

The 30 or so still photographers with me all huddle together in our little velvet rope corral under blazing hot lights for two hours while local celebs, CineVegas execs and Saint John of Las Vegas cast and execs walk their way down the Red Carpet. By the end I was sweaty and a little cranky but glad to have been given the opportunity to shoot my first Red Carpet event.

The results are better than I expected. Here are some of the shots I took. These are “raw” and unretouched so forgive some of the coloring and shadows. They really need some PhotoShoping but I’ll leave that for later. Hopefully I got all the names right. If not, please email me and let me know so I can fix it.

Lessons learned from this experience: don’t bother schlepping the big lens, you don’t need it; wear comfortable shoes and bring water; and bring a little recorder and/or pen and paper so you can write the names down!

I’ll be going to tonight’s red carpet for “All In: The Poker Movie” and will post those pics tomorrow. Stay tuned!