American Storm

Posted by Wizard
Oct 12, 2011

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Proudly boasting being rated by the Las Vegas Review Journal as the "hottest male revue show in town," American Storm plays Friday and Saturday at the V Theatre. For those who have never been to the V Theatre, it is situated towards one end of the Miracle Mile shops at the Planet Hollywood Casino. Unfortunately the signage is not very good so it is easy to get lost looking for the theatre. This theatre houses many different shows which sometimes only have a ten or fifteen minute break in-between shows so patrons are rushed out and then into the theatre so the show can attempt to start on time.

As with all male revue shows one must be prepared for an audience consisting of drunk screaming women. Being a male attending this performance my spouse was asked by the person sitting next to him why we were attending the show to which he responded we like men. In the entire audience there were only two other men who I am sure were also gay going for an evening out with their female friends. One interesting fact is the usher never checked anyone's ticket, it seemed as if anyone could have wandered in. After entering the theatre there was another usher who was organizing the seating. The tickets were general admission but he was escorting the pretty girls to the front, the more average ones to the middle, and all then men to the back. Male revue shows are definitely produced for a female audience. Although the tickets did say gentlemen welcome, the men did no interaction with any of the males and the musical numbers were performed to emphasize masculinity and the muscular nature of the dancers. If the show was intended for a gay male audience the dance numbers would be choreographed to emphasize a stronger sexuality tone and the music would be more trance in nature. As being the second male revue show I have seen I had hoped for a different format, but unfortunately the show follows the same format as Thunder From Down Under, and likely that of Chippendales.

American Storm opens with the male dancers performing a group number, which they remove their shirts to reveal an unrealistic perfectly, sculpted body. The host of the show, another handsome muscular man engages the audience to become more excited and says "the more noise you make the more clothes they will take off." Like all revue style shows, American Storm follows a format of a short monologue by the host and then a musical number by one of the dancers.

A blonde man who pretends to be a firefighter performed the first number. Although the performance pieces seemed to run together, what made this one interesting is he stripped the most, taking off his G-string showing the audience his entire body except for his goodies, which he had covered with a towel. At the end of each performers number a photomontage of the performer was displayed along with the models name.

During the show the women continued to scream to the host to take off his clothes to which he would always refuse, one saying he would need a country song to strip to. Towards the end of the show while the host was performing a monologue (of course the women were screaming for him to "take it off") a stagehand came out and asked the sound person to play a country song. By this time I was nearly deaf from all the screaming, and frustrated that I had earplugs I was planning to bring but forgot them. The country song played was "Save a Horse Ride A Cowboy."

American Storm was very generic. The performers did have amazing bodies, but their dancing abilities were unimpressive as was the choreography. Even though the dancers could not seem to stay in rhythm, the pleasure of seeing the muscular chests for ninety minutes seemed to satisfy the audience. There was some audience participation: four women were brought onstage and had to perform a lap dance for one of the "newer" cast members. This was a welcome change from the pasts acts the host spoke of that were done such as a fake orgasm contest. The cast does pose for pictures after the show, but only the show's photographer is allowed to take them and they charge $20 for the Polaroid that is given (who knew Polaroid still existed?). The cast also claims to go out partying after the show and invites the audience to attend.

Overall attending the show was not a pleasant experience. The corny dance numbers and intoxicated screaming females left me with a desire to leave the theatre after twenty minutes. It seems difficult to understand how men who only show their chests and rear ends can generate such a strong reaction from the audience. As it was intended to be, American Storm is for a girl's night out and should only be attended by those having one.

American Storm
Frday at 10:00 PM, Saturday at 11:30 PM
Miracle Mile Shops at the Planet Hollywood
866-932-1818
$56.99 (general admission), $66.99 (VIP), including tax.