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Singer Trad Ault waits for her cue backstage in a 1957 Chevy. > BACKSTAGE: Space is at a premium behind the scenes at the Tropicana CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1J women are working cm costumes, some making quick repairs, others placing them where they will be needed during the show. Space is at a p remium, so almost everything doubles as something it?╟╓s not A giant turntable serves as a warm-up platform for performers white set pieces from the striptease number serve as a makeshift closet for female dancers. Two members of the wardrobe staff are placing baskets of shoes and clothes under names scrawled on pieces of masking tape. ?╟úWe don?╟╓t have a lot of space so we use every little bit we have,?╟Ñ says lisa Perkowski, the company manager. As time ticks away, the pace remains the same. There is no frantic rush to finish anything, even when a voice over the loudspeaker announces it?╟╓s five minutes until showtime. Instead of people scurrying to get everything ready for the curtain to go up, they act as though they have hours and not seconds to prepare. But that?╟╓s natural, Steivel says. After a certain number of performances, some of die adr enaline fades and it becomes like any other fun job. ?╟úAfter a white you just kind of get used to it,?╟Ñ he says of tie pre-show bustle. ^?╟úEverything is a frenzy but a choreographed frenzy,?╟Ñ Perkowski says. She watches the adagio dancers warm up with a few lifts while five showgirls are seat-belted into the star-bursts that will descend from 25 feet in the air once the curtain is raised, in about two minutes. ?╟úVicki, you?╟╓re not chewing gum are you??╟Ñ Perkowski asks me of the showgirls who has just put something into her mouth. ?╟úNo, it?╟╓s a banana chip. It gives me something to do while Fm up there,?╟Ñ the showgirl replies, joking about the last bite of her snack. When the curtain goes tip, the audience goes wild. Dancers twirl and swirl around the stage in front of a backdrop of lights shaped like an aerial scene of Paris. During the opening, some of the girls dance offstage. The audience doesn?╟╓t know it, but they?╟╓re furiously changing costumes. Twenty seconds later, they?╟╓re right back out there dancing their hearts out There?╟╓s no room for modesty backstage during a performance, Perkowski says. So many costumes are required during each show that performers are used to changing in front of everyone: stagehands, wardrobe staff, each other. The pace picks up during the P&hour show with performers rushing offstage to their next costume changes. But the pace doesn?╟╓t stifle the playful atmosphere. Performers chat with stagehands, hug each other, laugh and tease one another un til their cue to go oil Number after number runs smoothly. Exhaust fumes M the ah as a stagehand drives ?√ßi CHRISTINE H. WETSUREVIEW-JOURNAS If - Si Up III if ?√ß ?║s|ii if|| Adagio dancer Stephanie Shaw warms up backstage before a recent performance of the Tropicana's ?╟ÑFolies Bergere the Chevy up to the curtain, awaiting the dancer who will drive it out onstage for a ?╟╓50s number. ?╟úIf s ail choreographed what we do backstage,?╟Ñ Phil Jaynes says after the show. As head carpenter, Jaynes makes sure everything runs the way if s supposed to. But he?╟╓s ready just in case it doesn?╟╓t ?╟úI?╟╓m always trying to think what happens if something goes wrong,?╟Ñ Jaynes says. ?╟úWhat am I going to do if someone gets hurt or something happens.?╟Ñ Once, when technicians were moving the cancan set, a light bulb broke. No one had time to clean up the glass before the curtain went up so Jaynes had a performer dance across the stage with a broom. Luckily, nothing like that happens during this performance. The wofk that has to be done to stage each show amazes Steivel, who says what happens onstage isn?╟╓t always as exciting as what happens behind the scenes, ?╟úPersonally I think most of the magic happens backstage,?╟Ñ Steivel says. What the audience sees is the finished product, not the steps it takes to get there. For instance, no one saw seamstress Denise Monti quickly stitching a showgirl?╟╓s tights mere seconds before she went onstage in the opening sequence. What they saw was a beautiful showgirl glide around in a fantastic, feathered costume. But if s all part of the routine. When the show is over, backstage empties out fast. Some performers go to get a bite to eat Two showgirls jog to the ?╟ Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas?╟Ñ sign and back. But within an hour, it all starts again.