Viva Last Showgirl

A renowned playground for adults, Las Vegas has played the background character in many of our favourite films. Home to casinos, gangsters, grand hotels, neon nightlife and the Las Vegas showgirl. And the ingredient that binds them - luck. Or at least the hope that it finds you there.

Donn Arden's Jubilee was the longest running Las Vegas strip revue, with curtains opening in 1981. He was the king of the spectacular, hiring the most beautiful women, dressing them in Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee's finest and wrapping it all up with the grandest set designs seen at the time. Not without its challenges, Jubilee faced venue fires before it even began and a flawed opening night. Arden said "I’m famous for beautiful girls and major disasters."

When the Jubilee curtains closed in 2016, it was the last traditional showgirl revue on the strip. Screenwriter Kate Gersten had attended a performance around this time and was inspired. Lights dimming, glitter fading, The Last Showgirl script rose from the sequins of a closing spectacular.

In a role that feels like destiny, Pamela Anderson plays Shelly. A Las Vegas showgirl with decades of experience under her feathers. When she hears her show is closing, her world unravels as fast as her aging costumes, no matter how many times she mends them. Reality can no longer be sewn into the seams or reflected away in the sparkle. This 57 year old showgirl has decisions to make and choices to rethink, starting with her estranged daughter Hannah, played by Billie Lourd. A relationship that is fractured from the sacrifices Shelly made to live her dream in the adoring spotlight.

The ensemble cast includes Dave Bautista, Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka. But the most astonishing of the supporting cast is Jamie Lee Curtis. She plays former showgirl Annette, discarded to the dimly lit casinos as a cocktail waitress, all the while wrestling her own drinking and gambling demons. No longer favoured by the blue spotlights of the revue stage, Annette embodies the hard life these women lead when time is no longer on your side. Defiant, glorious and with no feathers to hide behind, Annette still takes to the stage in her own way, atop a table in a half empty casino, moving not for the ignoring passersby, but for herself and every Shelly and Annette that came before her.

The Last Showgirl champions women who are messy, who make mistakes, who dare to dream and dare to age. It is a tale of reinvention and how there is no expiry date or limit to the power it gives. For me, Pamela Anderson has been a cultural touchstone since the 90s. A character, a sex symbol, an icon, but never really seen as human. This film, like a weird anti aging cream, has the power to reverse icons into humans. It happens on screen, before your eyes, like magic. This film is beautiful that way.