Saudi Complaints Shut Down Variety Show for American Troops

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia —  A variety show for American troops featuring a barber shop quartet’s rendition of “Lida Rose” and a chorus line of scantily clad women has been abruptly shut down after complaints from the Saudi government, military officials said Saturday.

The show, an amateur production staged by American and British expatriates to relieve the tedium of desert duty without television, telephones or newspapers, was canceled after only four performances when Saudi officials said it violated the Islamic country’s strict controls on public entertainment.

Though business people who pitched in for the production said it was intended only as “a morale booster,” a Saudi government official said international television coverage of the show’s female tap dancers was “irresponsible.”

Saudi officials have been walking a tightrope since more than 100,000 American troops began pouring into the kingdom, battling accusations from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and conservative Muslim leaders that the Saudis have opened the doors of the two holy shrines of Mecca and Medina to foreign infidels.

Saudi government leaders, said one official, winced at the idea of pictures of women’s legs being broadcast to Muslims all over the world, particularly at a time when an important conference of international Islamic leaders was under way in Mecca to decide on the religious propriety of inviting in American troops.

“At this time, we don’t want to give Saddam Hussein any excuse, you know?” said one official. “We don’t mind if we are under normal circumstances, but we have a common enemy, and he is emphasizing this issue. This was like a challenge, you understand?”

The 90-minute variety show played to almost 2,000 troops over two nights. It featured the barber shop quartet, which also sang “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad,” a country Western band and a stand-up comic.

American and British women, many of them employees of the Saudi oil company, Aramco, did a tap dance number and then a chorus line in which the dancers were clad only in teddies. “They did show a bit of skin,” admitted one of the organizers of the show.

“Did you ever see the old Mickey Rooney movie where somebody says, ‘Let’s do a show?’ Well, that was the idea. Something to give the troops something to see and something to do in their off time,” said another organizer.

Staff Sgt. John Blood, a Los Angeles soldier who saw the show, said the production provided “a nice break from the weather.”

“We’re out here all the time, it’s hot, the same thing day after day, you don’t even know what day it is anymore,” he said. But Blood said he wasn’t surprised that the show was canceled. “The Saudis find out what they were doing in there, they probably would (close the show). They were dancing in their underwear. By our standards, it was nothing big, but to guys who have been here 30 days, it was big. The Saudis would see it, I’m sure they would be offended by it.”

A private from the same unit called it “a break in the monotony of everyday life here. . . . You need these kinds of shows for men here. It’s a morale booster. It makes you want to carry on with the mission over here.”

The problem apparently arose when two American television networks, CNN and CBS, filmed parts of the show showing the tap dancers’ legs from the knee down.

Women in Saudi Arabia do not appear publicly unless they are clothed from head to foot. Most forms of public entertainment, including movies and theatrical productions, are prohibited.

“The problem is, I think it’s something new to us in this area,” said a Saudi official. “There are certain things that maybe you should do it, but keep quiet, don’t make a big fuss out of it.”