Producer hopes ‘Raack’ will shine like bronzed butt

Angela Stabile's book about the "Secrets of a Las Vegas Showgirl" will have to wait a few more years, and add a few more chapters.

The former dancer started writing after she left "Crazy Girls," but before she saw the Broadway show "The Producers." Inspired by the song "I Wanna Be A Producer" - and not, she makes clear, by the plot to defraud investors by creating an awful show ­- she put the book aside and launched the show now known as "X Burlesque" in 2002.

Spending 10 years in "Crazy Girls" "really was like going to school to become a producer," she says. And how many Las Vegas producers have countless tourists rub a bronze casting of their butt? She's third from the right on the Riviera's famous "butt" statue, and "my behind, I think, is still the shiniest."

"X Burlesque" marked 10 years in November, and is still going strong at the Flamingo Las Vegas. Now Angela and Matt Stabile, her co-producer and husband since 2006, are relaunching "Raack N Roll" on Friday at The D.

They believe "Raack" died prematurely at Hooters Hotel, when it closed last March after the property went through U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceedings.

The Stabiles say the topless show made money from its very first night in the fall of 2011, and was still running in the black when new management opted to close it, apparently wanting to cut ties with anything related to the past regime.

"It killed us because we were like, 'This is a huge success.' But we knew we'd get it up and running again," Angela says.

At The D's newly expanded showroom - adding a lobby area and a box office, as well as new stage lighting - "Raack" will occupy a 10:30 p.m. time slot after "Marriage Can Be Murder."

The new edition has updated choreography, costumes and numbers. But it still has five female dancers and host comedian Robert Nash, known for his Robert De Niro impression. As the name suggests, it's all staged to a rock soundtrack with no feathers, boas or traditional burlesque touches.

Nash catches up to the production after working on a movie in New York. He says "Beyond the Game," starring Armand Assante, made room for his
De Niro impression. ...

"Rock of Ages" has completed the conversion to an Actors Equity Association production, after opening in December as a nonunion show, the actors union confirms.

With this title at least, it's an issue that more affects the local show community than what the public sees on the stage. The producers opted to pay the higher actors union salaries than to keep the show at The Venetian nonunion and replace Equity performers who somehow were cast in the production.

Exactly how the Equity members found their way in - whether performers misrepresented their status in auditions, or were told it was OK to try out even if they belonged to the union - was part of the controversy that brought the union's national president to town for a recent meeting. ...

Matt Resler, a show producer involved with negotiations to reboot the showroom at The Plaza, says a deal is "moving forward" and he is reviewing an agreement that would put a co-op of producers in charge of staffing the theater and box office.

"If it makes sense, we're gonna do it, and I think we'll get there," Resler says.

However, the four shows that closed there last month may not be the same ones that reopen there, which seems a bit adrift from the original idea of those shows' producers pitching in to run the theater.

Now it sounds as if "Bite" is probably not coming back, and the status of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Grand Ole Vegas Revue" and "The Phat Pack" are still up in the air. "Other titles are on the table," Resler says. ...

"Legends in Concert" has pushed its move to the Flamingo from today to Feb. 28, its producers needing more time than expected to move south from Harrah's Las Vegas to the Flamingo. ...

The Sin City Comedy Club's John Padon says he is close to an agreement with producer Adam Steck to land the touring show "Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody" for an extended run at his Planet Hollywood Club.

"Spank!" was created by Canadian improv-comedy veteran Jim Millan, and briefly visited the Rio in November. Padon also says Sin City comedians will be involved in "Over 18 Night" on Monday at the Orleans Arena. ...

Producer Bill Caron says Roseanne Barr's headliner shows in the Tropicana Las Vegas' Laugh Factory are going well enough that the comedian plans to make the room "her new home." She won't perform year-round, but will be there enough to justify continued advertising as a resident headliner.

Barr still plans to take a break after March 3 to fulfill a previous commitment, but should be back by early April.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at
mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.