LowLife Staff Reviews

"Almost Works But Runs Thin"

Review in Las Vegas Review-Journal by Mike Weatherford

"'Ooh La La' a guy thing: Almost works but runs thin of ideas
"Ooh La La" is a pretty good (girlie show) as these things go, better than three of the five small topless revues now competing with it.
(Ooh La La) audaciously makes a whole show of five women (rotating each night from a corps of eight) and even more daringly gives some of them things to say or sing.

It almost works.

The gals do magic tricks. They perform aerial acrobatics on a giant hoop or while suspended in swaths of fabric. One of them, Kelly Adkins (who is also the star of "Fashionistas") does a number in pointe shoes. And they change clothes a whole lot.

The lighting design is luxurious and downright impressive for a makeshift venue carved out the casino's former tour and travel lobby.

Still it's mostly a dance show, and despite the well-honed choreography by Gary Thomas, there's a limit to how much bump and grind you need to see from a cast of five. (There's always one recurring question at a strip club: Who's next?) The bag of tricks isn't quite deep enough to keep a show that's only 65 minutes from running thin on ideas at about the 40-minute mark."
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Review in Las Vegas Sun By Jerry Fink
A Celebration of Women
"Topless Isn't This Show's Bottom Line
For a show with more obstacles than a steeplechase , "Ooh La La," the latest topless show to bare itself in Las Vegas, does remarkably well.
The room is small - 300 seats on a flat surface that will have you craning to see the beautiful gals performing some pretty sexy stuff. The ceiling is low, but remarkably they are able to perform some interesting acrobatics.
No sound booth to control sound; limited lighting ability; small stage; no backstage area to speak of ; no dressing rooms.
The showroom at Paris Las Vegas was nothing more than an open space near the registration desk when hypnotist Anthony Cools took over the area two years ago, threw up some walls, built a stage and started his adult show, "Anthony Cools -The Uncensored Hypnotist."
The room is suitable for his show, which involves bringing a dozen or so volunteers onstage, hypnotizing them and making them do embarrassing stuff of an adult nature.
But "Ooh La La" would benefit from a larger room. This talented cast - Kelly Adkins, Nicole Taylor, Michelle DiTerlizzi, Kendra Phillips, Ashley Vail, Cher Westcott and Cynthia Fuhrer - does a lot in the limited space - even a couple of trapeze acts.
"We try to take a negative and make it positive," says Cool, who produces the show that shares his room.
And they do.
Because there is no dressing room where the women can do their stretching before the show, director Gary Thomas has them do their warm-up routines onstage as the audience is being seated. The sexy pre-show is almost worth the price of admission.
Thomas, a former dancer, has created an energetic show with vivacious performers who sing, dance, joke, strip and do body painting , magic and acrobatics for 65 very fast minutes.
"Anthony gave me a list of ideas on a piece of paper and said turn this into a show," Thomas said.
And he did.
It races along smoothly, but for a couple of slow spots - one a routine that revolves around imaginary nudity and done better by the Society of Seven and another involving two women in a picture frame who change poses during blackouts.
Otherwise Thomas took seven months and created a little show that could have bigger aspirations.
He has an eye for beauty and for the sensual.
The topless elements don't overwhelm the observer. There's just enough to keep it interesting. The choreography is very sexy, at times erotic.
Although the obstacles were challenges , Thomas says that was a fun part of creating the show.
"We had to utilize what we have technically," Thomas said, "and we wanted to create something brand new - other than something from the mold of your typical Vegas topless show.
"Basically I built the show around the girls, highlighting each girl's talent, what they do best."
Thomas didn't create a show that was overflowing with topless dancing.
"I wanted to do something that had a tease factor built into it," he said. "We want the anticipation, fans wondering 'Are they going to take their tops off?' "
Cools says it's more than just about bare breasts.
"This is a celebration of women," he said. "It makes a statement. It lets people know these girls are not bimbos. They're intelligent and talented.
"We wanted to come up with a quality product, an extremely sexy variety show."
And they did. "

More LowLife Reviews

"Many Parts Are Edible"

Ooh La La is done on the cheap in something that resembles more of a meeting room with a stage. However, that doesn't necessarily make it bad. In fact some of it is pretty good. Overall, the 5 girls are pretty attractive and fairly decent dancers although they don't really try anything too difficult (except the one girl walking on point showing off her ballet training--that was pretty difficult I'm told). They generally have fun strutting around without their tops in all sorts of sexy costumes to all sorts of music styles--some of it pretty loud and perhaps a bit too industrial for the Midwestern audience.

We really enjoyed the BDSM scene where my favorite hottie was stripped to next to nothing (only a very small g-string), bound to a rack and wrapped with ropes by two other nearly-naked naughties. I actually started to get a bit of wood as the ropes were positioned between the bound girls legs and tightened in her crotch. While the wood was fun it was also fun to see some of the conservative wives in the audience squirm in their chair and to see the guy who let out a loud "YEAH!" get elbowed in the gut by his female partner.

A few of the other acts weren't bad although overall it becomes same-o, same-o rather quickly with a few of the skits (including the audience participation one) becoming downright boring.

Overall, it's worth a look as the dancers are pretty hot, the costumes are sexy, some of the dance numbers are fun (and sexy) and a couple of the girls (the tall blond one especially) have a good eye for comic relief. It's better than some of the other similar, more expensive shows around but get there early to watch the girls stretch out on stage prior to the show. It gets the sexy mood going right away...