Las Vegas Weekly

November 19, 2008 · 10:17 AM

Peep Show stars Scary Spice and Kelly Monaco are ready for ‘flesh and flash’

By Robin Leach

Kelly Monaco, Jerry Mitchell and Mel B: Peep-peep, peep-peep, yeah!

Photo: Tom Donoghue

Vegas Deluxe first broke the news yesterday -- click HERE -- that pop princess Melanie Brown, better known both as Scary Spice and Mel B from the Spice Girls, would star in the new Peep Show at Planet Hollywood.

Yesterday we learned that the first-season winner of Dancing With the Stars, Kelly Monaco, will co-star, and the show will officially open March 30. Mel told me she has no objection to showing off “flesh and flash” in the high-production, modern burlesque show directed by Legally Blonde’s Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell. Even Kelly, a sultry Maxim cover girl, told me she’d feel quite comfortable if he asks her to go topless!

Photo: Tom Donoghue

Mel B and Keith Barry bask in the magic of reunion.

We got exclusive one-on-one interviews and photo shoots with the two new Strip sensations, and we’ll put that all together for you to enjoy next week before, during or after the turkey and trimmings! Kelly will play Little Bo Peep in the sexy striptease show, with the pop sensation as the Peep Diva guide. A total of five musicians, two singers and 16 dancers will round out the show. Next week we’ll tell you exactly why it took 12 years to get the idea from paper to production and why it took Planet Hollywood’s head honcho, Robert Earl, only 60 seconds to buy it for his Vegas casino.

Incidentally, Jerry will be commuting between Las Vegas and London on Virgin Atlantic. After telling me he’s hired the most stunning topless dancers for the production -- “the most beautiful you’ve ever seen in Vegas” -- he revealed that he’ll stage Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Will Never Die in London’s West End next year, too. Jerry then split to go house hunting here since he’s moving out temporarily from Broadway in New York!

The introduction of Scary Spice and Kelly proved to be a coincidence of a reunion for Irish magician Keith Barry and Melanie. Just a month ago, Keith and the pop singer appeared together on a London TV show -- and he was told to read her mind. He asked her to think of a performer she’d most like to sing with onstage. Keith cut out a silhouette portrait from a sheet of paper and instantly when Mel revealed she’d been thinking of Elvis Presley, he showed the exact familiar face!

Keith is now enjoying a limited run in the mezzanine theater at Planet Hollywood, which will be Mel and Kelly’s new Vegas home. When he returns from a January and February European tour, he hopes to become the permanent late-show attraction there after the nightly striptease musical show.

Incidentally, Caesars Palace headliner Bette Midler watched Keith’s hypno-magic show there. She hosted a large group of her cast and dancers for dinner at the neighboring Koi restaurant and then drinks at the adjoining Strip House restaurant.

Meantime, Keith has been working with patients at Sunrise Children’s Hospital performing and teaching them magic -- and helping them interact using illusions. This weekend Keith shoots a new 1-hour high-definition TV special at the theater for worldwide release. He’s hoping when he returns in early spring to film a reality series, too.

— From Vegas Deluxe

Link Share This