Last June, Evil Dead The Musical opened on the Las Vegas strip and they've been pouring gallons of blood on audience members ever since. I recently spoke with the show's director and producer, Sirc Michaels, who told me all about Evil Dead The Musical, including the challenge of getting this show to play in Las Vegas, memorable guests, and what new visitors can expect:

You have quite a history with live horror productions. Can you tell our readers about your work on The Rocky Horror Show and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Live?

Sirc Michaels: I've produced and/or directed The Rocky Horror Show about 40-50 times over the past 2 decades from one side of the nation to the other. I started staging that show when theaters were still going strong on showing the film. Over time the film has left the movie theaters, but it has taken on a bigger, larger life on stage. When you combine the audience participation elements with live actors, you can get one hell of a party going.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog came about because of my love of the project. I saw it as a live stage show with a comic book motif the minute I saw the first video. I had approached Joss very soon after the web series aired. We negotiated, and over time I secured the rights for performances in Las Vegas. In fact, at the time of the performance, it was the only major city to perform the live stage show that wasn't affiliated with a college. And we are still the only major entertainment hub that has staged the show. It turned out really well, it stayed true to the films while being something new and exciting for the stage. I still feel it is something that could work on the strip. I think people would fall in love with it and keep it going for a long time.

What inspired you to move forward with a live musical version of Evil Dead?

Sirc Michaels: Well, as you can see I have a long history of working with cult classic material. Evil Dead seemed like a good fit. It was Halloween, I knew I had to fill asses in seats, and I knew that if done right, Evil Dead on stage could become something large and exciting.

Evil Dead The Musical isn't the usual type of show offered on the Las Vegas Strip. How did you convince Planet Hollywood to host the show?

Sirc Michaels: We had gone into every venue in town, just about. We scared off some of them with the Splatter Zone. When they heard we wanted to cover a third of the audience with 20 gallons of blood every night, that was it. Then others wanted us to cut the show down. A lot of these shows are really designed just to give gamblers a breather from losing money at the tables and slot machines, so casinos like the shows to be under 1.5 hours. There was no way we were going to cut the show down. My feeling is that if someone is paying for a seat, they should get the full show. Trimming the show down is basically ripping them off. It's like watching a movie that's been cut down for commercials on TV. Talk about a fuckeroo! No thanks.

Finally, we met up with David Saxe who owns the V Theater. That guy is as insane as we are, and he loved the idea that the show broke a TON of Vegas rules. The shows he produces break a lot of rules as well, so I think he recognized the potential. If someone says "you can't do that" or "that won't work", it only serves to motivate me - and I think he has that in common. So all the people who said "no" only made us more likely to work together.

For our readers who are unfamiliar with Evil Dead The Musical, can you tell us about how this differs from a traditional musical?

Sirc Michaels: First of all, it is considered "the musical for people who hate musicals". This is not something you have to be embarrassed about going to. We have a Splatter Zone that sits in front of the stage where we cover audience members with 20 gallons of fresh warm blood every night. The show is performed for the most part right to the audience to draw them in. Audience participation is allowed. We have people some nights who call out things and the actors respond, or we incorporate audience members into the show.

It has been compared to a combination of a Gwar concert, The Rocky Horror Show, and Evil Dead. There is very little that is traditional about this show, and we like it that way.

What type of people is your usual audience made up of? Does it tend to be mostly fans of The Evil Dead or do you get many people who have never heard of the movie before? What kind or reaction do you get from those who aren't familiar with the material?

Sirc Michaels: We are on the Vegas Strip, so we get a variety of people at every show. We have fans who come from as far away as overseas to see the show, and then we have people who just wandered in because they heard it was fun.

The fans of the films go batshit crazy over this show. They yell, they scream, they cheer, they hang out afterwards to meet Ash, and it's a wild time. People who are not familiar with the films are hard to discern from the fans because they are all pretty insane by the end, but what we hear from word of mouth and from responses we get on Facebook and in emails is that there are a LOT of converts out there. So what is happening is people are seeing our show and THEN checking out the films to see compare them, which is a lot of fun. That means their introduction to the stories and to Ash is through our work, which is pretty friggin' awesome.

We are bringing a little bit of EVIL into our audience's lives each weekend, whether they know what to expect or not!

Do you notice many return viewers? Is there much audience participation or incentive to attending multiple viewings?

Sirc Michaels: Yes. Without a doubt. We have people who have seen the show upwards of a dozen times. They always bring friends with them. And many of those friends start coming back as well. We do our best to take care of those fans who come back repeatedly. We dig having them and want them to have as good a time as we can make happen for them, since those are the guys who keep the show going.

For our repeat fans we are always trying to do special things for them. We are currently working on a fan club of sorts for those who are interested.

Do you have any interesting guest stories? Have you had any noteworthy celebrity guests attend the show? Do you know if Sam Raimi or Bruce Campbell have seen it?

Sirc Michaels: There was an older woman who came in with what I assume was her husband. She was short with people, she looked angry to be there, and it seemed as though her husband bought the tickets and was dragging her along. And these guys were a bit older - around 60 or so - so this was not our typical audience member. I was thinking we were going to piss off someone's grandmother once the show started and she got sprayed with blood.

So I waited out in the lobby, expecting her to come out demanding a refund. She never made an appearance. At intermission I wandered into the venue and she was chatting with other audience members, laughing up a storm. They were both covered in blood, and she seemed to be reveling more than him! But that's love, huh? Knowing when your significant other will want to be doused with blood, even if he or she doesn't know it for themselves!

As for any celebrities, we've had a few people come and see the show. The most important are the people who helped create the musical originally and Sam, Bruce, etc. A lot of the guys who created the musical have been out to see it, and it is always fun when they visit. We are working with Bruce right now to figure out a date for him to come hang out and check out the show.

The big thing for me is that everyone has been so awesome and easy to work with. I've been allowed to take this property that had been turned into a musical and take it a step further into a 4D experience, and I am excited at how well fans are responding and how pleased everyone involved in the origins of this classic series seem to be.

Will the show only be around for a limited time or is the plan for it to play indefinitely?

Sirc Michaels: The show is an open-ended resident production. We'll be spraying blood until the last fan goes home. We opened in June of 2012 and we assume we'll be going strong until June of a very distant year.

Does the show change frequently or do you have any updates planned?

Sirc Michaels: The show changes because of the moments of improv that happen, or when audience participation becomes part of the show. We change things up every now and then. If something has to be repaired it will be pulled from the show so audience members who come back again and again are always seeing a new version of the show almost every night. The structure is the same, but some details change. This keeps it fresh for us and for our regular fans.

Horror fans seem to be pretty excited about the upcoming Evil Dead remake after the trailer release, and Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell's involvement. Are you excited to see how it turns out?

Sirc Michaels: Personally I hope it does well. I like gory films, and I do enjoy remakes. What I wish is that they could take Bruce Campbell from the first film and put him in this one. I will miss Ash.

It does not appear to be funny in the slightest, so that breaks with the EVIL DEAD tradition as well. EVIL DEAD was a low-budget horror film. In EVIL DEAD 2 they started adding campy comedy elements so it became a horror film with comedy relief. ARMY OF DARKNESS was basically a comedy with some action/horror elements. This new film seems rooted more in the first EVIL DEAD and then takes a hard swing into the darkness.This is good, as it will have its own voice, and I think it will be a good movie, but I don't know if it will sit easily with fans as part of the EVIL DEAD series.

Aside from Evil Dead The Musical, do you have any other horror-related shows in the planning stages?

Sirc Michaels: We have a few shows we are in the process of working on, but we can't go into details right now. I promise you once we are ready to announce them, I'll let you know!

---------

If you're planning a trip to Las Vegas, Evil Dead The Musical is playing in the V Theater in Planet Hollywood every 10:00 pm on Friday and 11:30 pm on Saturday. We've included a photo gallery and trailer below, and you can learn more or purchase tickets at:  http://www.evildeadlasvegas.com/