For the Viper Room's new owner, Harry Morton, the path to the future at the Sunset Strip club runs through the past.
No, onetime co-owner Johnny Depp is not coming back, but an act Depp brought to the club in the 1990s via his friend Christina Applegate will: the Pussycat Dolls.
The burlesque-inspired troupe, not to be confused with the pop group of the same name, is effectively taking over the recently remodeled club every Friday and Saturday night for a year starting this weekend. (In fact, Paris Hilton will host and dance with the Dolls tonight.)
Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin "has had, over the years, an amazing run. . . . Now it's come back home," Morton said from his office on North Robertson Boulevard near Beverly Hills.
"No one's doing this on the Strip amongst our competitors," added Morton, the 27-year-old founder of the Pink Taco restaurant chain and son of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino owner Peter Morton. "I think it's always important that you evolve with the times. The Strip itself is obviously changing."
Morton need only look behind the Viper Room's parking lot to see some of those changes manifest -- after all, the pricey new London hotel no doubt will be a source of future weekend guests, if the concierge is doing his job right.
So it is only fitting that Morton is taking the club -- once better known for being the spot where River Phoenix fatally overdosed in 1993 than for anything else -- in a new direction. He started earlier this year with better lighting, leather couches and an upgraded sound system. Now, the programming is being tweaked. Past owners have been solely dedicated to the grittier side of rock 'n' roll, and though Morton still plans to feature rock on weeknights, with the Dolls, he's adding entertainment that might appeal to tourists.
In other words, Morton still wants a bit of rock sleaze, but with a healthy side of Vegas-style sizzle.
"The Pussycat Dolls show exposes the Viper Room to a new target market," he said. "The punk rock market is one market, but there are many different niches. It drives the customer in [because] it's a cabaret-style show. . . . There's a lot of hot girls."
So what will the new 45-minute Pussycat Dolls set at the Viper Room look like? According to Antin, a lot like the old show that made the Dolls a hit with L.A. night-crawlers 13 years ago.
