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HELL-BENT FOR LEATHER

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HELL-BENT FOR LEATHER isn’t just a campy romp in choir robes and chaps—it’s a gut-punch excavation of growing up queer in the Southern Baptist church. Scripture as weapon. Music, humor, and leather as armor. Beneath the bawdy laughter lies a story of overcoming shame, confronting trauma, and reclaiming queer identity with leather, defiance, and Sondheim.

 

This is exorcism meets celebration: proof that queer souls forged in fire can turn survival into art, pain into play, and silence into showtunes…finding divinity in our own damn terms.

 

The score moves through Broadway and Off-Broadway classics, hidden gems, and unexpected detours—Cole Porter’s wit, Craig Carnelia’s heart, Stephen Schwartz’s yearning, Cy Coleman’s swagger, and Sondheim’s scalpel-sharp truth alongside soul-stirring surprises from Eric Clapton and openly gay country-western singer/songwriter Adam Mac.

(An Existential Crisis in C Minor)

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Created and Performed by Michael Pacas​​​​​​​​​​​​

(Mature Themes, Language, and Religious Damage)

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Photo Gallery

Most production photography on this page by Tara Howard

Media Links

Television Interview

Radio Interview

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Feature Article

Feature Article

Feature Article 

About Michael Pacas

Michael Pacas is a performer, writer, and theatrical creator whose work blends cabaret, theatre, humor, projection, and autobiographical storytelling into emotionally charged performance experiences.

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Originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he has appeared in productions ranging from Sunday in the Park with George and The Threepenny Opera to The Producers, Hairspray, and Cyrano de Bergerac. He is an alumnus of the International Cabaret Conference at Yale University and appeared in the premiere of the musical adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces directed by the late Frank Galati.

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His original cabaret works include Who’s Your Daddy?, Big ‘N’ Easy, and HELL-BENT FOR LEATHER (An Existential Crisis in C Minor) — an ongoing theatrical fusion of music, projection, satire, and confession exploring identity, survival, shame, and reinvention through a distinctly queer and Southern lens. 

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Join My Mailing List! And if you interested in learning more about HELL-BENT FOR LEATHER?

Contact Michael for additional information, future performance inquiries, and availability.

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