Zombie Burlesque

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At a Glance

Full Review

The experience of seeing a show in Las Vegas is always a little fraught – trying to get that many people in and out of a theater, often with a stop at the bar along the way, can be unpleasant for everyone involved.

But seeing a show at the V Theatre in the Miracle Mile Shops in Planet Hollywood goes way beyond unpleasant and verges on torture.

Part of the problem is that they have too many theaters (at least three) crammed into a space that really should only be one and they have too many shows running back to back with little time in between. So there are long, unruly lines to pick up your ticket, other unruly lines to get into the shows where you’re often running into the people coming out of the show. Throw in the ticket handlers who seem to hate their jobs and everyone they encounter and the overly aggressive souvenir photo takers and you have all the ingredients for a major stress headache.

I bring all this up because this was my experience trying to get in to see Zombie Burlesque so you should take my review from here forward with a particularly bitter grain of salt. I was unhappy by the time I sat down in the theater in a way that the overpriced drinks served at the bar could not alleviate.

The concept of the show here is basically a burlesque style revue done by “zombies.” Not The Walking Dead style zombies who just want to eat your flesh, but sexy, campy, and wacky zombies who want to entertain you first and then eat your brains second.

There are several strip tease acts, some of which are kind of cute like the bit where they pay homage to “Attack of the 50 Woman.” But in the end they are just women taking most of their clothes off while wearing Zombie makeup.

There are a couple of variety acts plus lots and lots of r-rated humor, often involving anatomically correct, um, toys. Most of the jokes are groan-worthy and a few are misogynistic, homophobic, or some other -ic word but the good news is that everything is delivered in a genial, “we’re not taking this seriously so neither should you” kind of attitude that softens the blows. The actor that plays bizarre zombie Mikey has some great comic timing and delivery as he transitions from guy’s guy zombie to maraca-shaking showgirl zombie in an arc that should be offensive but actually lands a few solid laughs.

The host of the evening is quick on his feet, responding well to the drunken heckling that was hurled his way during a 10:30pm Saturday night show. Let’s just say that the audience that comes to this is not filled with polite-applause types, which they obviously plan for with the Jello shots that are handed out during the show.

The show is silly, profane, and not even a little bit sexy but there’s obviously an appetite for that as the room was pretty full when I saw the show and most people ate it up (no pun intended). For me, though, it fell very short of what I expect from Las Vegas entertainment. If you want sexy burlesque, go to Fantasy or Crazy Girls; if you want raunchy humor go to Absinthe; and if you want zombies, go walk through a casino and look for the glassy eyed stares of people sitting in front of slot machines.