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Throughout the world, Vegas sets the standard for lavish stage productions. The Bicraest Shows on Earth by Norman Sklarewitz Iive, on stage!" was Broadway ballyhoo years ago. Today, "Live, on stage!" says J"Las Vegas." Stars and specialties, show girls (and show boys), vest-pocket musicals, millions in costumes, or none at all. Productions nightly second to none. To be sure, there are other kinds of shows staged by the hotel-casinos. Some, like the Hughes casino chain, feature major names?╟÷Wayne Newton, Juliet Prowse and more. Others present intimate lounge acts with musical groups, comedians and vocalists. One showroom, the Union Plaza's, even brings the best of Broadway west. But the emergence of Vegas as the nation's super showroom owes more to Paris than Manhattan. The Blue Bell girls, a troupe of French seminude dancers rivaling the Eiffel Tower as Parisian tourist attractions, came to the "Hallelujah, Hollywood" the extravaganza at the MGM Grand, has been seen by 3.5 million show-goers. Stardust Hotel and Casino twenty years ago. The success of that review in August 1958 launched a trend that has done nothing but grow. The following year, the Tropicana Hotel and Country Club premiered its own Gallic import, the first edition of its lavish version of the Folies Bergere. It lost nothing in translation from Montmartre to Clark County, Nevada, nor did the Lido de Paris in transit to "he Stardust Hotel. Those casino-hotels without the resources or desire to mount an extravaganza all its own have not been left behind. There is a toothsome variety of small-scale productions playing up and down the fabled Strip. They may be smaller, but each, like 'Tee Fantasy" at the Hacienda and "Bare Touch of Vegas" at the Marina, is impressive enough to be the envy of hotels and legitimate theaters elsewhere. Where the word "spectacular" really applies, however, is at the Big Four hotels with their full-scale productions. The fact that some of these are now moving into their third decade of continuous entertainment doesn't mean that audiences today are seeing something out of the 1950s. Both the Tropicana and the Dunes regularly update their shows, guaranteeing even Vegas showroom habitues will enjoy performances that are fresh and exciting. The "Folies Bergere" has entered its fourteenth edition at the Tropicana Hotel and Country Club. The Parisienne-style revue opened in 1959 and has been delighting audiences ever since. Customarily a new edition is staged every two years, but, occasionally, as in the case of the current revue, produced by Alan Lee (with Joseph V. Agoston as executive producer and company manager), one may be held over an extra year in response to audience acclaim. From its opening and on through its eight scenes, the stage, choreographed by MARCH 1979 151