Can gory lead to glory for ‘Dead’?

Sirc Michaels is watching his stage designer hang a moose head puppet on the set of "Evil Dead: The Musical," the only Las Vegas show to feature a moose puppet - along with a chain saw and copious amounts of stage blood.

But something else catches the producer-director's eye: video screen displays of other productions sharing the V Theater in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort.

"Is our show on there?" he asks. A phone call is quickly placed. "Show me some love," he cajoles.

"Whatever (the theater) is willing to give me, I will chomp on. But you are responsible for your own success. No one else," Michaels explains later, after stepping out to the parking garage to further abet his amped personality with a morning smoke and Mountain Dew.

"Evil Dead" was to make its debut on the Strip this weekend, the rare community theater production to make such a leap to the tourist corridor.

Whatever you call these campy, interactive descendants of "The Rocky Horror Show" - B-movie adaptations ranging from "Reefer Madness" to "Spider Baby" - their time has come in the city. And perhaps now on the Strip.

Michaels might have just the right skill set to make it happen on his Mickey Mouse watch's time. Even before "Evil Dead" opened, he and V Theater operator David Saxe sealed a deal to replace the departing "Tony N' Tina's Wedding" with the like-minded "Awesome 80s Prom."

"I've always been interested in business, even when I was younger," says the Texas transplant. "I always thought it would be fun to be a CEO, but also thought it would be great to make movies at the same time. I've always liked the two sides of things."

Michaels staged alternative theater in Amarillo, Texas, where he faced protests from a fundamentalist group over the edgy play "Bent." The community ultimately backed him, but when his environmental scientist wife landed a job here, he was quick to follow.

As a director, "I love camp," he says. "I'm not pretentious. I'm deep, but I don't need to be preaching to people through a stage."

As a producer, he knows "The Evil Dead" has brand recognition from the movies it's based on. Even when he twice staged it at the Onyx Theatre, "I was interested in marketing to tourists."

Time will tell if "Evil Dead" turns out to be another noble failure. But those usually come from well-meaning producers who simply don't know the territory. This time, it seems more like the territory won't know what hit it.

With a chain saw.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.