Judge orders strip club in Vegas clean up act

LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas Strip nightclub with shows featuring simulated sex acts was ordered to clean up its production.

While Judge Susan Scann didn’t rule on whether the shows at The Act inside the Palazzo violated obscenity laws, she ordered the club to edit 13 of the 30 skits because they likely run afoul of lease provisions. Those allow property owner Las Vegas Sands to veto tenants that it feels detract from the “first-class” image it wants to project.

“To suggest there is no sex theme or sex-based act takes out the bulk of what we do and the bulk of the audience that is attracted to The Act,” said The Act’s attorney, Pat Lundvall, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The ruling capped three weeks of debate on whether the content, which includes simulated acts of bestiality, was too raunchy for Sin City. After an internal undercover investigation in March, Sands executives notified club officials on April 26 that they’d crossed a line with the show and were no longer welcome in the $15 million space.

Sands attorney Charles McCrea Jr. described the material as “what you and I and most decent people consider vulgar, depraved and perverted,” according to the Review-Journal.

The Act has fought back, saying landlords were fully aware that the shows were inspired by performances at an even more explicit, avant-garde theater in New York City.

“Before opening to the public and since that time, we worked diligently and successfully to ensure our performances were compliant with Clark County Code and the provisions of our lease,” The Act’s management wrote in a statement. “Yet we now learn that LVS expected us to meet additional standards that were never defined or communicated to us, and which are contradictory to other provisions of our lease requiring that we operate similarly to The Box-NYC. “

Managers at The Act said they are working to comply with the court’s order, but are considering their next legal steps.