We know, you never thought the day would come when the guy who made sweet, simulated love to his workshop would need your help in the seductive arts. But that’s precisely what Magic Mike (XXL) star Channing Tatum is asking for with the news that he’s launching a live version of the films in Las Vegas next year. In what’s sure to be the sexiest Vegas residency yet—sorry, Penn and Teller—the Magic Mike Live show will feature male strippers at the city’s Hard Rock (some jokes write themselves) Hotel & Casino.
Las Vegas hosts other such acts, but Tatum is providing an earnest twist—he’s looking for civilian feedback on what makes a sexy all-male revue well, sexy. He’s partnering with Cosmopolitan on the show, whose staff is probably already scouring the publication’s many quizzes about such things. But the ever-charming actor, who’s directing the show with his Magic Mike choreographer Alison Faulk, wants to have “a conversation” about what women find desirable, rather than just ramping up the nudity and gyrating. “It should be woman-empowering instead of just about the guys getting naked,” Tatum explained, echoing the philosophy of Domina proprietor, Rome (played by Jada Pinkett Smith).
This isn’t the first time that Tatum has sought to include fans in one of his productions—he previously held a contest for male-entertainer enthusiasts, offering the most avid of them a chance to sit in the audience for Magic Mike XXL’s “denudement.” There’s also a possibility that Tatum and/or his co-stars will appear in the live show.