“The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody” Reportedly Coming to Rio

By Scott Roeben, on March 04 2025
3 min read 6 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Shows

An adult “Star Wars” burlesque parody is coming to the former Chippendales theater at Rio.

The show hasn’t been officially announced yet, and contracts are still being finalized according to Rio officials, but it melds “Star Wars” and burlesque, so what’s not to love?

We’d have predicted this show would be shut down by lawyers in its first week, but it has run in dozens of cities already, presumably protected by parody protections afforded by the First Amendment. Suck it, Disney.

Will a sexy parody of “Star Wars” rack up ticket sales or go bust?

We first heard about “The Empire Strips Back: A Star Wars Burlesque Parody” at a media event at Rio where Penn and Teller unveiled a new table game with their faces on it.

We apparently had missed a story about the show in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, but we took solace from the fact everyone skips reading the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

It seemed odd the show hasn’t been officially announced and there’s been zero advertising despite being two months out from the opening date of May 4, 2025. May 4 is “Star Wars” day as it’s a play on “May the force be with you.” Yeah, pretty thin.

The show goes out of its way to explain how it’s not affiliated in any way with Lucasfilm, which was purchased by Disney and ruined. This show focuses on the original “Star Wars” trilogy, thankfully.

The show’s site says, “Disclaimer: This is a parody production. Star Wars and its characters are registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. This production is not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated with Disney, Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd., Lucasfilm Ltd. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third party licensors.”

A teaser video from six years ago seems a little low budget and, well, thirsty.


Parodies and spoofs tend to involve some sort of humor or at least a perspective, we don’t get that vibe from “The Empire Strips Back” at all. It doesn’t seem to have a take or point, it’s just scantily-clad women in “Star Wars” costumes.

No, we do not have to see something to judge it. We’re just that good.

Here’s a review from someone who saw it. The reviewer says the show is “hilarious, sexy, spicy and rowdy in equal measures.”

Here’s another review from the New York Post that describes the show as a “strange nerd fantasy.”

And another review, this time from Los Angeles magazine. We actually couldn’t find any negative reviews of the show. The writer says, “I entered ‘The Empire Strips Back’ expecting to see a few semi-nude women in ‘Star Wars’ cosplay, a little bit of dancing and some razzle-dazzle. What I saw was a galaxy far, far away from the expected.”

From the clips we’ve seen, “The Empire Strips Back” doesn’t seem to make any meaningful observations about “Star Wars” or science fiction or pop culture or anything, really.

“Spaceballs” is an actual parody of “Star Wars,” by comparison. Yes, that reference is close to 40 years old. Sorry, fellow youths, you missed out on a lot of great movies. They were basically the opposite of everything nominated in this year’s Oscars. You know, they were watchable.


Granted, “Star Wars” is an enduring cultural phenomenon, despite the franchise’s slow decline in quality in recent years.

Folks might show up for the nostalgia alone.

While the “Star Wars” theme may have a curiosity factor, what the producers have failed to take into account, we fear, is Las Vegas isn’t like other cities. We have lots of T&A. It’s sort of what we do. A show that might be titillating somewhere else can get lost in Las Vegas.

The key, as always, is marketing, and having deep enough pockets to promote a show for the six months to a year it takes for the word to get out that a production even exists.

Even a recognized name can struggle in Las Vegas. Word is Chippendales, which moved to the Mat Franco theater at Linq, is struggling in its new home.

After “Empire” gets people to the theater (no mean feat given Rio is off-Strip), there has to be a there there.

The downstairs bar near the theater is going to have a whole different vibe now that the Chippendales have moved out.

There’s no word on how long a run is planned for “The Empire Strips Back” at Rio, but our recommendation would be to see it immediately if you have any interest.

Ticket prices and show times aren’t available yet.

On the bright side, the show got its start in 2011, so somebody’s going.

We’ll be rooting for “The Empire Strips Back” to succeed, of course, we’ve just seen this scenario too many times to ignore the reality of the Las Vegas entertainment landscape.

At the very least, while the show isn’t topless, audiences will get to see attractive women showing off their Tauntauns, so there’s that.

Time will tell. Patience we must have.