It's a '60s Shag party. From left: the maid (Jacqueline Pagone), Othal (Cindy Best), Shimmy & Shake (Ashley and Katie Pennington), Latin lover Dodge (Saimir Avdyli, front) and host Eldon (Richie Allen). Photo by Craig L. Moran.

OK all you people who say you're sick of Las Vegas being overrun by Cirque and more Cirque, with a few magicians and hypnotists tossed in.

You say you want to see something different, so how about this?

A monkey in a fez.

Mini-skirted angels working that great lounge in the sky, the Pearly Gates.

A seance in front of a tiki god.

"Shag With A Twist" is original, all right. And if a departure is the only thing audiences have been waiting for, this comic dance musical would be packing them into the Plaza's retro showroom.

The campy tale of a fatal Tupperware party, and an Inspector Clouseau-like search for the killer (with the monkey sidekick on the side of the law), is all played without dialogue by characters wearing sculpted headpieces to resemble the works of cult pop artist Shag (Josh Agle).

It's safe to say that no show since "The Fashionistas" (subsidized by porn money) has staked so much on such a distinct but dubiously commercial vision.

Granted, the Austin Powers movies did nudge this swanky aesthetic into the mainstream. "Shag" already survived three months at Krave nightclub before its October move downtown as a tighter production with a full stage set. The producers' early target audience of club-hopping hipsters has been traded for those who bought Henry Mancini's '60s soundtracks on vinyl -- when they were new.

But perhaps there is such a thing as being too different, at least when adapting a California creation launched in a legitimate theater to a showroom. There are many good reasons to root for this underdog show, from its quality staging to the good will generated by the hard-working young cast.

But when I say this -- as a huge fan of retro-lounge culture, Shag's artwork and Chris Lang's master forgery of shagadelic '60s music -- you must listen: There's something missing.

Shag himself said last summer, "I didn't want any dialogue, because once these characters get voices, they're kind of fixed that way forever. I like the idea of people being able to project their own voices onto the characters."

That's nice, but sometimes people buy tickets to let others do the projecting. It might be good to at least hear more from the singing narrators (Amanda Kaiser, Michael O'Conner), perhaps to better set up the slow opening that introduces all the hep party guests.

Much of "Shag" plays as though all its elements -- the whimsical costumes, Shag's set design, great choreography by director Cynthia Bradley -- are lined up in place waiting for more to happen. More plot maybe, or more jokes that play as well as the ones about the Tupperware "burp," or the Operation game.

Or maybe it's all about context. One suspects that if this show were dropped into the schedule of the Nevada Ballet Theatre, it would be received as a delightful surprise, something just right for a young city with a fledgling fine arts community.

But downtown at the Plaza, trying to pull retirees from the slot machines? It just seems too stagebound for the sleepy showroom, despite the best efforts of the monkey (David Robledo) to keep sneaking up on audience members and scaring them into alertness.

There's gotta be a better way to engage them, and these "Shag" folk seem clever enough to figure it out in time. The adventurous can always help them buy some. Remember, those who don't support shows that bend the formula -- even ones that aren't perfect -- lose the right to complain about Cirque and the hypnotists.