“Sexxy” is in it for the long haul at the Westgate Cabaret.
Friday, May 4, 2018 | 2 a.m.
Persistence pays. Just ask Jennifer Romas.
The veteran Vegas dancer and choreographer created “Sexxy,” the topless revue at the Westgate Cabaret, almost overnight after meeting the casino resort’s owner, David Siegel, during the 2014 ribbon cutting event marking the historic property’s transition into its current form.
“He said, ‘So you’re the one who’s been emailing me,” Romas recalls with a laugh. She had been trying to connect with different production companies and hotel entertainment departments, looking to break through as a producer. “It was a frustrating time but I kept pushing, and I had sent him a lot of videos and things I had done as a choreographer.”
After meeting the president of the timeshare resort firm and talking about entertainment possibilities for his new acquisition in Las Vegas, Romas went to work on what would become “Sexxy.”
“He wanted to open something in time for the CES weekend so that gave me about three months,” she says. “I went home that night and started going through my closets and costumes and props and pulling music from different numbers I’d done over the years. I researched names to see what was taken. And I went back in the next morning with a game plan, and they said, ‘Let’s do it.’ The next day I posted auditions, the next day after that we started rehearsals. It happened that quick.”
That little burlesque show she pieced together opened in January 2015 and has been going strong ever since. Now Romas has signed on for four more years of “Sexxy” at the Westgate, stabilizing an ever-diversifying entertainment lineup at the property once known as the home of Elvis Presley and Liberace as the International and the Las Vegas Hilton.
Over in the International Theater, longtime Las Vegas favorites Earl Turner and Clint Holmes are teaming up for their new “Soundtrack” show, and the Westgate just announced the return of Barry Manilow later this month and a new magic show from Jen Kramer to share the Cabaret space with “Sexxy.”
Romas couldn’t be more excited about the changes at Westgate and is over the moon about her new deal.
“The team there is incredible and very entertainment-driven, and there are so many exciting new things happening on the property,” she says. “I’m very happy there. I don’t think anybody planned things to be like this, but they didn’t know me. I’m very driven. I’m a perfectionist and very old-school. I get out there and pound the pavement every day and find ways to get the word out there.”
It’s that old-school, do-it-yourself drive that helps distinguish her show from the other female revues on and around the Strip.
“Because I’m in the show, not just the producer, it’s different. I’m onstage every night. I don’t give myself a break,” Romas says. “I make sure and surround myself with people who have the same integrity I do, the same energy and same soul who believe in the show and believe in me. It’s so close to me, I think it’s just different. I’ve never done anything less than full-out and I expect that of my team and they bring it to the table every day and night.”
“Sexxy” is on at 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday at the Westgate Cabaret (3000 Paradise Road, 702-732-5111) and more info can be found at sexxyshow.com.
