Back in 2010, I was honored to be one of the four judges for the 20th Anniversary Miss Exotic World Pageant (the Miss America of burlesque, if you will).  The highlight of that year’s Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend, the pageant took place in the showroom of the Plaza Hotel and Casino in fabulous Downtown Las Vegas; which proved to be an ideal venue for such an occasion.  Now, nearly fifteen years later, burlesque has returned to the Plaza Showroom in the form of Miss Behave’s MAVERICKS, a rollicking good time led by the titular Miss Behave (aka Amy Saunders, the wisecracking, sword-swallowing doyenne of delighting DTLV’s demimonde), who delights audiences with her zero-fucks-given attitude while acting as a social sherpa for the evening’s revolving cast of entertainers.

If Dita Von Teese at Voltaire at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas represents the more refined/uptown aspects of burlesque, then Miss Behave’s Mavericks proudly represents burlesque’s more DIY/downtown aesthetic, and not just because the former is on The Strip and the latter is in DTLV (though it certainly helps underscore the metaphor).

Familiar to denizens of Las Vegas nightlife, Saunders’ Miss Behave character has been a fan favorite for years, both on the Strip and off, and this might well be the best use of her talents to date.  Describing herself as a “truffle hound for talent,” Saunders has corralled a stupendous rotating roster of performers, and the lineup changes so often that you’ll never see the same show twice.

Opening night featured acclaimed neo-vaudevillian hula-hooping chicken Tanya Gagné [an icon and innovator of punk rock circus and cabaret, Gagné—as one half of The Wau Wau Sisters (alongside Adrienne Truscott)—has appeared Off-Broadway, won awards at the Fringe Festivals in Edinburgh, Brighton, and Adelaide, and sold-out a season at the Sydney Opera House]; juggler Christopher Stoinev [a multifaceted high-energy entertainer who will be touring this holiday season with A Magical Cirque Christmas], contortionist TJ Santiago [a member of the Dzul Dance Company who trained at Circus Warehouse in New York and at X-Rose Contortion Center in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before moving to Las Vegas to train with Angelique Chimeg]; self-described ballerina-clown, Bella Schleiker [who toured Puerto Rico in 2023 in partnership with Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico as a member of Clowns Without Borders], water performer Alexandria Beauregard [who channeled Jennifer Beals’s unforgettable water-drenched strip-scene from Flashdance]; hand-balancing contortionist showgirl, Scarlett Business [the glamazon who made it to the Deliberation round of America’s Got Talent 2016 is the alter-ego of circus performer/makeup artist, Kyle Cragle, who’s appeared in Cirque du Soleil’s OVO and Mystère, as well as Spiegelworld’s Absinthe]; multi-genre singer/songwriter/recording artist Trice Be Phantom Magnetiq; Elvis tribute-artist, Matt Lewis, named “Best Elvis in Las Vegas” by USA Today [who—before founding ShoWorks Entertainment—headlined Legends in Concert in Las Vegas for fourteen years]; and internationally renowned burlesque artist-cum-experimental theater icon, Julie Atlas Muz [a 2004 Whitney Biennial Artist, in 2006 Muz was crowned Miss Exotic World and also received The Ethyl Eichelbeger Award from Performance Space New York; while personalized variations of Muz’s signature Balloon Act has been a crowd favorite in various Spiegelworld shows since 2007]; as well as a through-the-theater and onto-the-stage performance by the Green Valley High School Band [which immediately brought to mind the USC Marching Band performing Tusk with Fleetwood Mac].

Recently, Saunders sat with me and expounded on how she sees Downtown, telling me, “I think there's Fremont East, and there's The Arts District, which is very hipster-tastic.  And then I think there's classic Downtown Las Vegas, which is the [Golden] Nugget, the Plaza, the El Cortez, etc.  And for me, it's that, because these are people who are coming on a budget. We're all on a budget now, so we can actually work with an affordable model where we are actually playing to your visit to Vegas.  We are here for you.  This is here.  We are literally here to serve you.  If it's not working for you, we'll change it.  Why?  Because we are here to entertain you.”

After I interjected and took our conversation on a completely unrelated tangent—no surprise to anyone who’s ever conversed with me—Saunders brought us back to the subject at hand by espousing, “What should be front and center is ‘What does the audience need?’  And I think that has been very much neglected for a long time.  So, for me, what I want is a high-end experience for a low-end price.”

This is where the Plaza Showroom really hits all the right notes because in this old-school multitiered theater—with its proscenium stage, draped velvet curtains, crystal chandeliers, leather banquettes, potted plants (live foliage!), and cheerful dust motes that fill the beams of every follow-spot—lies the spirit of “old Vegas,” and those glamorous ghosts of yesteryear that tourists have been chasing for decades.

Saunders explained it thusly, “For me, this room has got potential for the correct curation. I love MAVERICKS. I want MAVERICKS to be an institution here; an affordable institution that sits down for years, so that there is something entertaining and ever-changing and affordable here.  And then I also want to put magic that is not just Mavericks in this room. This could be perfect for Kiki & Herb, for Murray Hill, for whomever.  And it’s what I also absolutely love about working with Plaza and Jonathan [Jossel]: They all serve the old dame.  And that's what we're doing.  We serve the old dame.  We are here at her disposal.  Everything that Jonathan and the Plaza have been doing for years now has been about serving the experience of the customer, not just within the property but with the understanding of the bigger picture. There is a reason I have never moved out of Downtown: It's because you can't bloody walk anywhere else!”

As regards that high-end experience for a low-end price that Saunders described, the Plaza is precisely where you can take a few of your friends out for the night, and—for what you’d spend on a single round of mixological concoctions on the Strip—can spring for tickets to Mavericks as well as a few rounds of drinks.  And if you’re truly intent on dropping some of your hard-earned ducats, Oscar’s Steakhouse is right upstairs with its stunning view down Fremont Street, great steaks, highly potent potables, and one of the best cheeseburgers in town!

Miss Behave’s MAVERICKS
Plaza Showroom | Plaza Hotel and Casino
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