Las Vegas Weekly

November 5, 2008 · 9:57 AM

Meet Peep Show’s Jerry Mitchell, the Strip’s newest director

By Robin Leach

Jerry Mitchell.

Photo: Ben Pesner/Tony Awards

Sometimes even gossip columnists have to use some sleight-of-hand and misdirection to stay ahead of the news without compromising an incredible story. With that in mind, I want you to meet the Strip’s newest director who has landed here after an extraordinary track record of Broadway successes. Tony Award-winning Jerry Mitchell is a name you will be hearing a lot about in future weeks, so it’s time you knew something about him.

He’s arrived here to direct the new adult cabaret Peep Show opening at Planet Hollywood early next spring, and we’ll all get to meet him personally on Nov. 18. In the meantime, he’s been “undercover” in Vegas several times over the past few weeks, and just one of his assignments was to successfully recruit what his producers believe are the best 16 female topless dancers in town!

His theatrical and Broadway credits are impressive, starting with You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1999, which he followed with The Full Monty smash the following year. Since then, he’s launched such winning Broadway shows as Hairspray in 2002, Gypsy in 2003, La Cage Aux Folles in 2004, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in 2005 and Legally Blonde: The Musical last year. Jerry is currently the mentor on Bravo TV’s reality contest Step It Up and Dance.

Jerry won a hat trick of Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for staging the 2005 Tony Award-winning Best Revival of La Cage Aux Folles. In all, he’s won two major awards and has been nominated 12 times. He also was nominated for The Drew Carey Show, and his film work has included Drop Dead Gorgeous and Scent of a Woman.

While on the Strip, Jerry checked out performances of Criss Angel’s Believe, which proved a reunion with Luxor President Felix Rappaport. Both had worked together previously on Hairspray, which was produced at the resort casino with actor, playwright and screenwriter Harvey Fierstein in the starring lead role as Edna Turnblad. On Broadway, the show won Jerry both a prestigious Tony and Drama Desk nomination.

Watch his name popping up in headlines over the next few weeks as he relocates here to Vegas! That’s as far as I dare go at the moment!

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