Las Vegas Weekly

July 15, 2009 · 3:01 PM

‘Peepshow is a joy,’ says Peep Diva triple threat Shoshana Bean

By Robin Leach

Shoshana Bean of Peepshow in Planet Hollywood.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Veteran Broadway actress, singer and dancer Shoshana Bean is not only working in Las Vegas for the first time in her career, but she’s also working in a topless show for the first time! Shoshana told me that she’s loving it all.

Shoshana said: “I thought it was pretty late in life to make one’s first trip to Vegas. This is my first time here working. I love it. … I can’t believe it is work. It doesn’t feel like work; it feels like a paid vacation. I love that it has the big city feel, but is smaller and a slower pace. I love that it is always warm. I love the shopping, the food, all the wrong things of excess about it.”

Naturally, I wanted to know how she felt about working with Holly Madison, the cast and choreographer and director Jerry Mitchell. She told me: “I love working with Jerry. That is a treat and an honor. Holly is a sweetie pie and fun, and the rest of the cast is amazing. I have grown to like them very much. They are so talented and positive and hard working. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such great people.

“I’ve done Broadway musicals most of my life so far, so being the centerpiece of a cabaret burlesque show is actually really fun. We are bridging the gap between the Broadway musicals I have been doing and the pop albums with my own music. It is a nice, solid theatrical piece with contemporary pop.

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Holly Madison and Shoshana Bean in Peepshow at Planet Hollywood.

“I am enjoying it. I am not topless, and I probably wouldn’t be doing the show if I had to be, but I like it. It is different, and it is only for a brief amount of time. As an artist, a performer, it is fun to be doing something completely different. My last show was Wicked on Broadway, where I was completely clothed from neck to toe.”

Shoshana performed a run of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Pittsburgh and a Barbra Streisand tribute concert in Los Angeles before hitting Las Vegas for two days of rehearsals before jetting back to New York for another concert and then onto Seattle and Cleveland to sing before returning to start Peepshow -- all within 10 days!

“Compared to the other shows I have had to tackle, Peepshow is a joy,” Shoshana said. “I took my video camera and taped the show and then watched it over and over while I was traveling those days before coming here. They taught me the four numbers, and for me it was just nonstop repetition. I went over it in my head. I wouldn’t say I was perfect by any means the first night I went onstage, but I kept track of my mistakes in my head and worked on them, and by the third night, I had it all down perfectly.

“I will leave here after a three-month run, and as a perfectionist, I still won’t be perfect to my standards. Each day, though, I feel more comfortable and more confident. I am able to go out there and have fun. I feel like I am able to partake in the fun and not be so focused on not making mistakes. Holly and I are now flying free and loose!

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The bed scene in Peepshow at Planet Hollywood. Shoshana Bean is second from left, and Holly Madison is second from right.

“This is the first time I’ve been in a show where the dancers go topless. Maybe I will take off my top on the last night of my run. I am getting more and more comfortable with it, so you never know!”

Shoshana produced and recorded her debut album Superhero, which was released last December. It’s a pop and R&B album with all original material except for two songs. It’s all Shoshana.

“It was a labor of love and passion and hard work. I didn’t anticipate doing it independently, but the process unfolded, and it seemed like the right thing to do. It was a lot of work. I won’t lie to you. Every decision I make has to do with maintaining or sustaining. The reaction has been really positive. I am thrilled with people’s reactions.

“When I was a little girl, it was all a dream. I started running around in heels and lipstick at 3 years old and taking tap dance classes. It was always an outlet for all of the energy I had when I was younger. The older I got, the more serious I got. I didn’t want to go to college for business or anything, and it was what I was good at and what made me happy, and God bless that I keep getting jobs and that I am able to do it.

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Shoshana Bean, Holly Madison and Josh Strickland in Peepshow at Planet Hollywood.

“I went to the best school for musical theater, which was in Cleveland, which funneled kids to New York where there were jobs, and I wanted Broadway. I just wanted to be the best I could. Life will take you where you need to be.

“I should pinch myself that I made it to Broadway, but as an artist, as someone who strives for all kinds of things and more, it is never enough. There are so many other things I want to do. I expect more from myself, but in the scheme of things when I see others struggling to reach that goal, I am absolutely proud and grateful.”

Shoshana is with Peepshow until September, and then ex-Danity Kane singer Aubrey O’Day steps into her high heels as the mentor mistress Peep Diva.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

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