Las Vegas Weekly

November 27, 2008 · 6 AM

Exclusive Interviews, Part 3: The Peep Show’s tantalizing trio of Melanie Brown, Kelly Monaco and Jerry Mitchell

By Robin Leach

Jerry Mitchell with Kelly Monaco and Mel B.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

A lavish, multimillion-dollar, topless, adult Strip show starring a pop superstar and a small-screen siren is set to be the most eagerly anticipated new Las Vegas show of 2009! Planet Hollywood chieftain Robert Earl has partnered with BASE Productions (Jersey Boys, Wayne Brady and Phantom -- Las Vegas Spectacular) for Peep Show, a modern-day burlesque production with 20 of the sexiest, breast-baring beauties in entertainment!

Vegas DeLuxe met up with Melanie Brown, aka Mel B and Scary Spice of the Spice Girls; former bare-it-all Playboy beauty Kelly Monaco, currently on the ABC soap General Hospital; and award-winning Broadway director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell for this exclusive three-part interview and photo feature.

We posted the interview with Mel B on Tuesday (click HERE to read it again); yesterday it was all eyes on Kelly (click HERE to take another peek); and today, the spotlight shines on Jerry as we wrap up our exclusive three-part coverage.

Famed Broadway director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell checked out every topless show on the Strip before moving ahead with his new Peep Show. Jerry said it’s been an 18-year dream to launch it, but he got the green-light go-ahead from Planet Hollywood head honcho Robert Earl in less than 60 seconds!

Jerry talked candidly with me about how he’s planning the sexiest spectacle of them all:

Robin Leach: In creating this show, you saw the Crazy Girls at the Riviera, the Fantasy dancers at the Luxor, Crazy Horse Paris at MGM, Bite at the Stratosphere, etc., etc. So we already have burlesque and topless girlie shows already running. Why is this one different? How do you as a director and choreographer present the naked form as it has never been done before here in Vegas? Is this going back to getting up close to the glamour girls of Sinatra’s days?

Jerry Mitchell: I don’t have a big ego. For 18 years, I have been honing the modern element of burlesque with Broadway Bares. I appreciate what everyone is doing here. What is different is my sensibility, it is the way I see it and I envision it. It is my love of Donn Arden, who created Jubilee! at Bally’s. It is my love of the Strip. It is my love of a small -seat showroom. I saw Bette (Midler), and she was spectacular. She makes it intimate even in that large Colosseum. That is what is missing on the Strip: the intimacy, that connection. That is what I learned in New York and from bringing Hairspray here to the Luxor -- a book and dialogue scenes don’t have a place here. I love Zumanity. I am different with my approach to striptease. I look at it from a dancer’s point of view, from the physical body telling a story.

RL: Do you push the envelope with this show in Vegas?

JM: I think I am reopening the envelope. I think it has been closed for a long time. I don’t think it is sexy when a girl is dancing and one minute she is there and then her top is off. I think it is sexy when she is taking her clothes off slowly and revealing herself, seducing you. With Peep Show, you will see them when the girls want you to see them. It empowers the woman.

RL: It is interesting you chose such a tiny star in Kelly Monaco.

JM: On stage size matters. Tall feels empowering and short feels vulnerable. She has to be a woman that does not have the answers.

RL: Kelly has no problem showing off the assets?

JM: I don’t think she has a problem trusting me. That is what I have learned. I will take care of the girls. I don’t want the girls to be uncomfortable, because then the audience will be uncomfortable. Well the only show that is sexy and has a sexual burlesque show with a budget that we will compare to is Zumanity. I am a huge fan of Jubilee!, but it needs updating. We will tease and tantalize throughout the entire show. I am a huge fan of Gypsy Rose Lee. When I first started Broadway Bares, I really got into burlesque. I went and found out all about it.

RL: You are openly gay -- how would a gay choreographer know what turns on a man when he comes to the show?

JM: I can be more objective, because I am looking at it, I am looking at them looking at it, as opposed to them being so blinded by it that I can’t see how it is communicating. When I did my first Broadway Bares, I had Juliana Urbana as the naked Indian girl. Juliana was one of the first girls that took it off for me. This was a show where mostly men were stripping and gay men were watching. They screamed louder for her than anyone else in the show. The reason was she was gorgeous and did a great job. I created a number where she was the star of the stage. There were 20 girls on stage, but she was the star. Because I was able to focus the light and costume, it all added up to a spectacular number. I learned something about myself. I was turned on by her, but I realized I had something that a straight director would get distracted by the beauty, but I was able to stand as a director and make sure the T’s were crossed and I’s were dotted.

I think I have 16 of the most beautiful girls for Peep Show that anyone has ever seen on one stage. Some of the girls have come to me from other shows. I have one group that I call my long-stem beauties. I have one group that are my short and power girls. The short are modern in the choreography and what is seen in TV these days. The long-stem girls have a little more classical behind them, they have the Broadway thing. Our Red Riding Hood is a classic beauty -- she is in a long gown when she appears.

RL: Mel and Kelly were your first choices?

JM: When we first talked to them, they were on the first list. I knew Mel from Step It Up and Dance. I wanted her to play Paulette in Legally Blonde in London that will happen at the end of the year. She said she didn’t want to go back to London. I kept in contact with her thinking what can we do. Then she came in to sing the three title songs. I worked with her on a number, and she was unbelievable. I knew she could dance. She is sexy.

RL: You are juggling Peep Show with a lot of other new productions.

JM: Legally Blonde closed; it is on tour. Hairspray is in London; Phantom’s sequel Love Never Dies is coming up in England next August. I do two back to back in England: Love Never Dies and Legally Blonde. I have three others being written. Harvey Feinstein is writing one, which I will direct.

RL: You have said you always wanted to do Vegas but Vegas has always been a little resistant to Broadway.

JM: I am not Broadway with this show. Broadway Bares is a burlesque show. It’s run now for 18 years, and what started as a one-night event raised $17,000 the first time, and now we just made $865,000 in one night. In all we’ve raised more than $6 million. I love spectacle, and I worship Bob Mackie and Donn Arden. Greg Bonds will do the costumes for Peep Show. Greg did the 12 costumes for my Calendar Girl show. The girls came out, and we thought this should be in Vegas right now. Greg did six shows for me. He did Follies for me; he knows how to make a woman look beautiful and sexy.

I am from a very small town: Pawpaw, Mich. Every night when I said my prayers, I had three dreams: I wanted to dance on Broadway, I wanted to dance in movies, and I wanted to dance in Vegas. They are coming true here at Planet Hollywood. My heart has been dying to do this on the Strip. I love Vegas, and I love this form of entertainment. What is missing is an adult show that is sexy, inviting, introduces you to beautiful women, glorifies a woman, does not put her in a lot of makeup. The story of the show starts out with the modern-day woman who really wants love in her life and as she falls asleep, she says to her dog she wants someone as loyal as you and we zoom in on the book. It is Little Bo Peep, the page explodes, live band, live singers, she meets Red Riding Hood, etc., and they all teach her how to be confident and sexy.

She becomes the sexy woman she always wanted to be in order to find love in her life. It is empowering as well as a sexy show. It’s one of those shows where men and women can come and have a sexy night together. You can’t do the show without sexy people in the show. I have been searching long and hard, had a lot of auditions. I needed to find Bo Peep. I needed someone who seemed innocent, and Kelly Monaco was perfect. The show has a cast of 30 -- 25 women, five gentlemen. The band is live. When Bo Peep goes on this journey, she is on a quest to find love, and any good story needs a star to have all of the answers. I went to Mel B and said I need a singer, a dancer and a star. She is the diva to take the entire audience in her hands.

Tickets are now on sale for the first preview performance March 30, with the gala opening night set for April 19. The existing Planet Hollywood showroom, which currently houses Stomp Out Loud, will close right after New Year’s and be completely redesigned and rebuilt by acclaimed designer David Rockwell. The new custom environment surrounding the naughty fairytale world will have upfront VIP cabaret tables and premium seating for that real up close and intimate peep!

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