Las Vegas' hotness factor will increase by a factor of seven this weekend when the Pussycat Dolls Lounge opens at Pure. That's the number of women in the Las Vegas troupe, culled from hundreds who auditioned here and in Los Angeles and New York by Robin Antin, the group's founder, head choreographer, costume designer, lounge architect and chief bottled-water supplier.
Behind her, the girls—including Vegas dancer Laura Rodriguez, who jumped ship from Tangerine's burlesque show—are working through a rendition of "Fever" torrid enough to boil the water floating in a nearby giant champagne glass. Workers bring in a silver-clawed bathtub and sound engineers work out lighting effects while outside come the deafening cheers of Final Four fans in Caesars' sports book.
It's all a vision come true for Antin, who came up with the Pussycats while rooming with Christina Applegate and who drew up the plans for the club on the back of a napkin (thankfully, there's not a miniature Stonehenge in sight).
"Christina grew up as a dancer," Antin says, her militaristic cap pulled low over her eyes, one of those shawls that's all the rage draped over her trim frame. "And I've been dancing my whole life."
For fun more than anything else, Antin began putting together a cabaret routine, complete with costumes, but it all took a sudden, serious turn in 1995 when Applegate suggested they take the show to Johnny Depp's Viper Room. Depp loved what he saw and Antin had a matter of days to not only polish up the act but also decide on a name. With help from her brother Steve—who is fabulously talented, according to Antin, as is, one soon learns, everyone in her circle, which could be Antin simply dishing out flattery or a statement of fact and it's more likely the latter—they settled on the Pussycat Dolls.
The roster of women who have shaken tail feathers in the lineup reads like a who's-who of desire: Applegate (of course), Carmen Electra, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Brittany Murphy and Charlize Theron.
A move from the Viper Room to the nearby Roxy Theatre doubled the number of seats but Antin found her troupe still selling out. The timely release of Moulin Rouge! boosted interest in bustiers. As singing began to play a greater part, Interscope Records came knocking with a single, "Don't Cha," out April 12, and now, Sin City and a possible TV show.
"Vegas is the right place for it," says Antin.
The girls will perform for 3 to 5 minutes every 20 to 30 minutes, Antin explains. Performance areas consist of a high main stage with poles and a barre, swings, the aforementioned tub, a circular stage with the giant champagne glass that rises from inside, a spiral staircase and the bar itself. The idea is to create a constant, immersive environment—quite different than the nearly set-piece burlesque shows at Forty Deuce and Tangerine. Another difference: no pasties, no G-strings and no nudity.
"When they take a costume off, they have another costume under it," she says. "It's a contemporary, hip, Hollywood version of a cabaret-style show." But those basketball fans outside need not fear. There's more than enough gyrations, hair-tosses and smoldering looks to shoot heart rates straight up.
But Antin is quick to point out that the Pussycat Dolls is not all about the penetrating male gaze and patriarchal power structures.
"Inside every woman is a Pussycat Doll," she states. It's all about being un-self-conscious, about re-creating that feeling a girl gets when she's dancing alone in her room, playing with her hair, makeup and clothes, Antin continues. "So much of the Pussycat Dolls is about targeting women. It's all about female empowerment."