Like a particularly saucy episode of Mr Benn, **Burlesque **is shaping up to be the perfect opportunity to step through a door and into a world of costumed fantasy. *USA Today *has laid its jazz hands on some stills from the latest musical to slink seductively off the Hollywood chorus line, showing Christina Aguilera as Ali, a small-town gal turned nightclub song-and-dance star at LA's The Burlesque Lounge.
In the line-up of the golden vocal chords, Aguilera is joined by the Oscar-winning talents of Cher,who plays the debt-ridden owner of Sunset Boulevard club, and Kristen Bell, her rival burlesquer. Less with the singing but equally with the acting is Stanley Tucci (the club's stage manager), Alan Cumming (the doorman) and Cam Giganet (the abs).
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But will it capture the tongue-in-check tease of the burlesque art form or will it come over all Verhoeven? More column A than column B, promises Aguilera. "It's sexy, it's sensual," she tells USA Today. "The whole idea of burlesque has always intrigued me. The art of the tease, the dance, beautiful women — need I say more?" No Christina, you had us at "sexy". But thanks for asking.
Written and directed by Steven Antin, **Burlesque **dances its way into our lives on December 17.