The Stage

Lloyd’s The Show Girls set for Arts Theatre run

Published Thursday 11 June 2009 at 16:26 by Matthew Hemley

Thriller Live director Gary Lloyd is bringing his burlesque troupe The Show Girls to the Arts Theatre in London, for a series of late night shows intended to boost the group’s profile ahead of a planned international launch.

Lloyd told The Stage that The Show Girls - formed last year as the UK’s answer to the Pussycat Dolls - are scheduled to perform four dates at the London venue later this month, and added that the performances will mark the troupe’s first official showcase.

Although the group performed as part of last year’s TheatreMAD fringe festival, Lloyd said this month’s shows were the first featuring the girls in “their own right”, and said further UK dates and an international launch would follow the performances at the Arts Theatre.

He said his aim for this month’s run was to target industry figures, which he claimed would help build the group’s reputation.

“It is very much an industry thing, and we are hoping to build it to more of public attraction once they get a name. The Show Girls is one of those things that will build and gain a reputation by being a cool thing for the industry to go to, with the public then clicking on to that,” he said.

The choreographer and director also revealed that cast members from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - the Musical, as well as Victoria Hamilton-Barritt - who recently starred in the musical Flashdance - would be making guest appearances as part of the shows, which will start at 10.45pm and run for 60 minutes.

As revealed by The Stage last year, The Show Girls was launched by Lloyd, who runs his own company called Boss Creative Entertainment, to provide “high-end” female performers, who are in between auditions, with a project to focus on.

Lloyd said there was a “football team” of performers who know the show, with six of these making up the line-up at any one time.

This allows the cast to change regularly, but it also gives those with other commitments the freedom to work on other things.

Each of the shows will consist of four or five numbers by The Show Girls, interspersed with segments from the guest performers.

The Show Girls is directed and choreographed by Lloyd, with Richard Beadle, the musical director for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - the Musical, looking after the show’s arrangements.