Vinnie Cassidy
Anthony Cardella has been a show manager and choreographer for “X Burlesque” for 15 years.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Anthony Cardella first came to Las Vegas with his comedian mom, Beverly Wines, better known as Pudgy the Queen of Tease. She performed in different casino shows including “Crazy Girls” and “Skintight,” and later reunited with a former castmate, Angela Stabile, to perform in Stabile’s “X Burlesque” at the Flamingo.
Cardella, who grew up dancing, stayed connected to that Vegas entertainment scene and eventually “fell into my dream job,” he says, working as a manager and choreographer on “X Burlesque.” He’s been an essential member of the Stabile Productions team for 15 years now.
“I was very fortunate. I’ve been here ever since and I have no plans for leaving,” Cardella says on this week’s Sun on the Strip. “The last show my mom did was ‘X Burlesque’ and that’s kind of full-circle and kind of cool.”
The evolution from professional dancer to choreographer is a common transition but Cardella’s career has worked in reverse.
“I love seeing my work onstage and helping the girls perform and really get there, that’s so rewarding to me,” he says. “Now that I’m in shape I have people tell me, ‘You should go onstage and perform,’ and I say no because when [dancers] retire they want my job. And I have it. I’ll do minimal gigs and I do love to perform, but when I’m teaching, that’s when I really perform. I come alive.”
“X Burlesque” and sister show “X Country” were among the first casino productions to reopen after the pandemic shut down live entertainment on the Strip, and Cardella says the cast and crew were well-prepared to return to the stage, even after a long layoff. The Flamingo production shifted gears with a special “X Burlesque Private Edition” version of the show geared for couples, offering Champagne and other perks to offset restrictions that limited audiences to just 30 people.
“It worked and sold out,” Cardella says. “It sounds so crazy looking back, how everyone did it, but … the audiences were so appreciative of what everybody was doing. They had the best time.”
Cardella’s creative contributions are key to the show’s long, successful run. There are plenty of sexy female revues on the Strip but few that have stood the test of time.
“There’s a little bit of everything for everyone that comes to our show. We really do have the most beautiful women in Vegas and on top of that, it’s the hardest dancing you’re going to see in any female revue show,” he says. “Dancers come to us because they want to dance. We have different varieties, hip-hop and rock and country and true burlesque numbers, and girls tend to not leave our show because of the dancing.”
Find this week’s Vegas entertainment news, interviews and more every Wednesday with the Sun on the Strip.
