Elizabeth Berkley gets her kicks in the 1995 “Showgirls,” which gets its licks in a parody. (UA/Courtesy Everett Collection)
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Nomi Malone is back! In the 1995 camp classic “Showgirls,” Elizabeth Berkley’s psycho stripper climbed to the topless top of the Strip. Now at long last, Nomi’s made her way to a pole near us in “Showgirls! The Musical!”
After a successful run at the East Village’s tiny Kraine Theatre, tonight the gleefully unauthorized parody moves to the gay nightclub XL, on West 42nd Street.
It’s a natural progression for creators Bob and Tobly McSmith.
Back in 2005, the pair wrote “Bayside! The UnMusical!,” based on “Saved by the Bell,” the cult TV series that gave Berkley her start as the overachieving do-gooder Jessie Spano.
April Kidwell, who played Jessie in the musical, remembers that “a couple of us worked some ‘Showgirls’ bits into ‘Bayside,’ and told Bob and Tobly it’d be a good idea for their next project.”
“It was so clear that we had to take Jessie to her next step, which was Nomi,” Tobly, 32, says.
Luckily, Kidwell, 29, was as up to the challenge as Berkley was, and like her she leaped from a high-school student to a manic, grandstanding diva — it probably helped that she actually grew up and worked in Vegas.
The McSmiths created songs from whole cloth, since the movie isn’t a musical per se, but also left out bits of the story.
“We wanted to focus on Nomi and her journey,” says Bob, 33. “So we made cuts and combined characters.”
But what’s most important to fans is how faithful the musical is to the movie.
“We definitely use lines,” Tobly confirms, “especially the iconic ones like, ‘I used to eat Doggy Chow.’ ”
And what about those delirious floor-show scenes?
“Our choreographer, Jason Wise, made the worst best dances you’ve ever seen,” Tobly says.
“It’s Broadway-caliber dancing but in an exaggerated, ridiculous manner,” Bob adds. “And topless.”
“Lots of t – – s,” Tobly confirms.
But the musical’s biggest coup just might be having Rena Riffel reprise her role as Penny, a naive dancer marooned at the sleazy Cheetah Club, for the first two weeks of the run.
At 44, she has fond memories of being on the set, describing the mood there as “really uninhibited. Elizabeth got to the point where she wouldn’t even put her robe back on between nude takes.”
Although Penny isn’t a big part, she’s a fan favorite. For Riffel, that is sweet vindication.
“They say it’s terrible to be typecast and known for one thing,” she says, still sounding eerily like her character. “But the flip side is when you’re lucky enough to get typecast in a phenomenon like ‘Showgirls.’ That’s a gift that keeps on giving.”
“Showgirls! The Musical!” plays XL Nightclub Wednesdays and Saturdays through June 15. Tickets ($20) at showgirlsthemusical.com.