The Last Showgirl

Synopsis: A Las Vegas showgirl has to find a new job while troubles surface in her personal life.

Pamela Anderson’s Shelly is living the dream, Vegas version. In The Last Showgirl, she’s a dancer in the show Le Razzle Dazzle. It’s a 20th Century-style relic, over-stuffed with glitz and pretty women. The performers don’t so much dance as parade around stage, taking care to not bump into each other’s wide polyester wings. The women wear elaborate, neck-stressing headdresses and skimpy leotards.

Shelly’s been with the show for a while, and she loves her job in spite of the fact that the owners nickel and dime the performers, making them pay for repair of any costume wear and tear.  She boasts that it’s a French spectacle, mostly based on the fact that the show’s title has a French article before Razzle Dazzle.

She takes the newbies in the show under her wing.  Jodie (Kiernan Shipka of Mad Men and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) has left home against her parents’ wishes to follow the bright neon lights of Vegas.  Mary-Anne (Brenda Song, working steadily in TV since Disney’s The Suite Life) has found her footing in the industry, but appreciates Shelly’s unjaded outlook. While Jodie, who looks about twenty years old, is wide-eyed about the city’s glitz, Mary-Anne, about ten years older, is more practical-minded.

Shelly hasn’t registered that times have changed since the 1980’s when she joined Le Razzle Dazzle. Audiences have new ideas about “sophistication” aka titillation, and LRD is stale. And it’s no competition for Cirque de Soleil-esque  high concept shows and thrilling acrobatics.

Le Razzle Dazzle’s days are numbered when a burlesque “dirty circus” show starts getting more performance nights at the cheapy casino where Shelly works. Eddie (Dave Bautista, aka Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy) the producer/stage manager of the show, announces that their show will be closing in two weeks. Shelly is aghast– her fantasy of the show and her “stardom” in it is essential to her identity. The other dancers are quick to look for audition opportunities. Not Shelly. She finds the new shows tasteless. It’s also a problem that she can’t dance that well and she’s twice the age of the women shows are looking for.

Shelly needs to face reality! Lady Gaga grossed $1.53 million per show during her 2024 residency, but dancers’ salaries don’t give them the luxury of being out of work for long. But instead of auditioning, Shelly spends her time gazing out at the Vegas cityscape from rooftops or twirling aimlessly near casino signage in the blinding Vegas light.

Shelly lives alone in a small ranch-house where she hosts her friends. Eddie comes by to commiserate with Shelly and some other soon-to-be-unemployed dancers. He talks about the old days when he worked the Siegfried and Roy shows. They were the guys who had a show in which they strutted around in jumpsuits, forcing tigers to perform tricks. Well, until one of the tigers grabbed Roy in his jaws. (Who would’ve thought that a huge solitary predator who belongs in the jungle wouldn’t do well being put through their paces onstage?) But Eddie doesn’t talk about the ethics of the show. He does, however, recall that Siegfried & Roy ‘went hard’ on the red wine.

Shelly’s future may look like that of her friend, Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), a former Le Razzle Dazzle performer. She was there when Shelly used to perform the “Hindenburg” solo. I had images of her twirling from some silvery dirigible in a tribute to the doomed aircraft.

 Annette, while a pleasant friend, is a brazen and bitter person. It seems that she got fired for looking old. She’s now stuck as a cocktail waitress at a really tacky-looking casino where she delivers drinks to slot machine players. When business slows, the manager sends home Annette and another aged staffer in favor of two younger workers. Annette, with her avoirdupois, wrinkles and hideous spray tan, can do nothing but scowl.

JLC pulls out all the stops in this role. Breezy socializing with Shelly and other performer friends, she’s glum at work. I kept hoping that business would pick up because, left to her own devices, Annette puts on unasked-for performances on the casino carpet.  She does some downright maudlin dancing to an 80’s hit, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Perplexed customers pass her with their mouths agape. At least she has a job…

Shelly, days from unemployment, should start looking online for a job. Instead, she mourns the lost golden age of Vegas shows when she & her fellow dancers were ‘ambassadors for style and grace.’ Occasionally, she springs from her reveries to call her daughter. Yes, Shelly made time to have a kid, Hannah (Billie Lourd) about twenty years earlier. She leaves cheerful messages to her daughter, asking her to drop by for a visit. 

One day Hannah takes up the invitation. Polite, but aloof, she quietly responds to Shelly: Does she have a major? (Hannah is graduating in a few weeks)…Nice that she lives with a long-time foster mother, but Hannah should remember that Shelly is her real mom (Hannah looks aggravated)… Since she seems like a fellow artist, she should come see her at her show! “

Hannah fixes her eyes on Shelly and asks, “Is that the same show you’d leave me in the car for when you performed?” Oof. Yeah, so it seems Shelly has some work to do on repairing her relationship with her daughter. One that even a free pass to Le Razzle Dazzle will not fix.

In fact, more than a couple other of Shelly’s relationships come under strain as her last day of work looms. Will she set to mending them as doggedly as she does her torn show wings? Or run to a nearby magic show, pleading with the magician to transport her back to the 1980’s when she reigned supreme at Le Razzle Dazzle? 

I would advise Shelly to be realistic; she can get on her cell phone and fill out some job applications in a new line of work and then text her daughter for a get-together at a non-casino setting. And she can do it all while listening to her favorite glory days music of the 80’s. How’s Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” for non-stop inspiration?

P.S. The Last Showgirl is somewhat of a family project. Gia Coppola directed, with her cousin, Robert Schwartzman producing and cousin, Jason Schwartzman appearing in the film. 

P.P.S. Like Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada requires a lot of background performers, singing and dancing. According to Salary.com the average salary (2025) for a dancer in Vegas is $38,691. The average hourly wage (2025) for a casino worker in Vegas is $17.93/hr. 

As of February, 2025, every casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip is unionized. Employees covered include guest room attendants, cocktail & food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, and kitchen workers. 

As far as performers, not all are covered by unions. But there are performers who are members of American Guild of Variety Artists.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  B

Cut to the Chase: Pamela Anderson shines in her best role yet — a long way from “Baywatch.” Billie Lourd gives a strong supporting performance as a neglected daughter. The movie also takes a look at the sometimes-tenuous rewards of performing in entertainment meccas like Las Vegas and Orlando.

Humor Highlight: It has to be Jamie Lee Curtis’s solo dance at her job –where she is not employed as a dancer.