Casino New Brunswick's Entertainment Centre has hosted a wide variety of musicians, comedians and other performers over the year-and-a-half since it opened. But the casino is about to host a whole different kind of show. On Thursday, the Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Revue, with guest celebrity Carmen Electra, will be featured at the venue. It was originally scheduled to take place in June, but was postponed due to scheduling conflicts.
Featuring seven dancers, along with model, actress and Playboy Playmate Electra and Girlicious singer Nichole Cordova, the show takes place at 8 p.m. "The show is just jam-packed, sexy ... I call it a 'burlesque revue' because it is reminiscent of burlesque but it really is more ... very hot, current, sexy dancing," Pussycat Dolls founder and choreographer Robin Antin said. "Some of it is similar to what you've seen in the Pussycat Dolls recording group, (and) I've choreographed everything on that. So it's kind of a fusion of all of it."
Since founding the Pussycat Dolls as a burlesque troupe based in Los Angeles in 1995, Antin has built an empire. The Pussycat Dolls, featuring a variety of female performers coming and going over the years, has been a burlesque troupe and recording group and it has spawned Las Vegas clubs the Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Saloon and Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Lounge. There are Pussycat Dolls exercise videos, lingerie and more. There's even a Pussycat Dolls Casino, where you can gamble while watching dancers.
"It's the perfect way to have fun and lose your money," Antin says with a laugh. She says the club performances are similar to what the Moncton audience can expect. It will consist of "Las Vegas theatrical" versions of Pussycat Dolls hits like Don't Cha, Buttons and When I Grow Up mixed with a new dance twist on classics like Fever, Hey Big Spender and Foxy Lady.
"It's a part of the brand that I can tour with and have guest celebrities be a part of it," Antin says. Guest celebrities that have performed with the troupe over the years include Gwen Stefani, Christina Applegate, Fergie, Kelly Osborne, Eva Longoria, Jessica Simpson and Kim Kardashian.
The 39-year-old Electra will headline the Moncton show. The Playboy model, actress and dancer was born Tara Leigh Patrick. She has starred on TV shows Baywatch and Singled Out and been featured in movies like Scary Movie and Date Movie.
Antin says the celebrities featured in her shows have all wanted to know what it's like to be a Pussycat Doll. "It's hot, it's sexy and the girls can sing and dance and all that," Antin says. "But underneath that, it's about confidence and it's about finding your inner doll and your inner confidence, your inner self-esteem. It's pulling out that inner sexy girl that is sometimes sort of hidden."Fitness is an element of it, too, Antin says, whether that means going to the gym or taking dance classes.
"When you feel good about yourself, when you're feeling fit and your body is feeling good, you truly feel sexier. And that is why I did the (fitness) DVDs, because I wanted to teach women that you can unleash that inner doll."
The next step for Antin is a new Pussycat Dolls-themed reality show, co-executive produced by Kim Kardashian. "The whole concept is about my business of being sexy and about creating that awareness of - what does it mean to feel sexy? How is it that you can feel sexy? What is it that you can do to find that?
"And the show will be about that, but also about my world and my empire and me behind all of it. And I think you'll see that part of me and what I do to create that world for myself every day."
Antin sounds content as the queen of her "empire," and she's kept busy on other projects as well. She has choreographed for American Idol and guest judged on So You Think You Can Dance.
"It's a lot of work, and I have a lot of people around me that I trust implicitly that help me so much. And I think that's what it's about, working with people that you trust and that you know have your back. But I enjoy what I do, and obviously you can tell. It's all for the love of it."