Lord of The Dance Inc.

If you’ve watched Michael Flatley in “Lord of the Dance”--laser beams bouncing off his glitter-dusted bolero, skintight leather pants and sweaty bare chest--you know from the outset that he is the Star.

Yet when the show returns to L.A. at the Greek Theatre this week, Flatley won’t be in it. Nor will the Star appear in the European tour as it rolls through Austria and Belgium. And the new Las Vegas troupe, approaching its 70th performance, has a total unknown in the lead.

Two years after its Dublin opening, the production employs more than 300 people worldwide--and has spawned five Flatley clones. The quintessential star vehicle has turned into “Lord of the Dance Inc.”

“I created a cottage industry, which, I knew way back, would go on long after I retired,” Flatley said by phone from Monaco, where he was vacationing and house-hunting. “Each of these troupes is less a ‘franchise’ than the birth of another child giving something back to the world. People are crying out for entertainment.”

The numbers bear him out. The U.S. troupe, set up last October, filled the 6,200-seat Radio City Music Hall for two weeks and is, mostly, selling out on the road. Like the European “Lord”--which Flatley left in June--it’s expected to tour until at least 2000. The Vegas project may have even longer legs. It opened on July 4 and is booked at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino indefinitely.

“In June, our first [month] without Flatley, we sold every ticket available,” said Brad Wavra, vice president of Cleveland-based Magic Works Concerts--promoter of “Lord” in Europe. “And we’re 90% sold out through November. We intend to take it to every country in the world--we’re now looking at Russia, the Middle East and the Far East.”

Such post-Flatley expansion grows out of the mega-success of the initial run. “Lord of the Dance” has taken in more than $200 million in ticket sales since opening in July 1996--placing it in the top five shows worldwide, according to Performance magazine. No matter that some critics have skewered the show for excessive razzle-dazzle (in one number, female dancers sport hot pants and black bras). The public is eating it up.

Flatley’s colleagues say his spirit--if not his presence--still infuses what is billed as “Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance.” He not only created, choreographed and produced the piece, but, as executive producer, now monitors the offspring for quality control. And certainly his name draws audiences--some of whom may assume they are going to see the Star himself.

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The franchising strategies emanated from Flatley as well. “People underestimate Michael--he’s a shrewd businessman as well as a performer,” said his London-based business manager, Martin Slitton.

“Lord of the Dance” was a do-or-die proposition for Flatley, who was fired from “Riverdance” in 1995, reportedly over conflicts about money and copyright credit. The new production was financed solely through the dancer’s personal savings and an advance on the video rights.

“I had no choice but to bite the bullet, go for it,” Flatley said. “I couldn’t walk into a dance studio and say I was looking for a job as an Irish dancer.”

Two performers, half the age of the 40-year-old Flatley, replaced him on the U.S. tour, alternating in the physically demanding role. John Carey will be dancing the entire L.A. run, however, because Damien O’Kane is sidelined with a knee injury. As Flatley’s original understudy, Carey got his big break when his mentor tore his calf muscle a week and a half after the Dublin opening.

“I’m not trying to emulate Michael--though people love his showmanship and flamboyance,” said Carey, a 20-year-old Englishman who is a seven-time step-dancing world champion. “I’m just trying to be myself.”

Filling Flatley’s shoes is a tall order, O’Kane agrees. “At the start, I felt I had to live up to him, but now I don’t feel that pressure.”

In fact, the 41-person show--a tale of good versus evil, love lost and gained--has changed in Flatley’s absence, notes U.S. tour promoter Stan Feig of Bill Graham Presents: “Since Michael was such a commanding presence, the show had more peaks and valleys--depending on when he was onstage. Now, instead of being a backdrop for Michael, the ensemble has a chance to shine.”

The show also changed in another way. It plays in smaller theaters to compensate for Flatley’s absence. “We now book houses with about 5,000 seats compared to 10,000 before,” Slitton says. “Still, having three shows out there more than compensates for the drop in box office at those individual venues.”

In early 1997, a casino approached Flatley about bringing the act to Vegas. Though those talks fell through, the show played the MGM Grand last summer with Flatley in the spotlight. After five sell-out performances, New York-New York booked the production into its 1,000-seat Broadway Theater for nine shows a week. And, according to Slitton, “a large entertainment company” is negotiating to set up a smaller residential company elsewhere in the U.S.

Flatley has celebrated his retirement--twice. Late in June, people turned out for a three-day run at the Royal Dublin Stadium to pay homage to the controversial Chicagoan. On July 25, a sell-out crowd of 25,000 paid between $48 and $195 to watch “Feet of Flames,” an even bigger spectacle held outside in London’s Hyde Park.

These days, Flatley is becoming a cottage industry himself. The French government invited him to perform under the Eiffel Tower. Boxing promoter Barry Hearn asked the dancer--an amateur super-middleweight to engage in a series of fights. And the Star has just signed a deal for his own brand of cologne.

“Michael is very popular now, and we’d be foolish not to capitalize on that,” Slitton said.

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The next stop? The silver screen, it seems. “I’m finishing up a film script--’Dream Dancer’--which is about to go into pre-production,” Flatley said. “It’s ‘Rocky’ meets ‘Dirty Dancing’--an uplifting story that encourages people to follow their dreams.”

Though Flatley downplays talk of longer-term acting aspirations, his manager insists that’s the plan.

“Michael wants a film career very much,” Slitton said. “Acting to start with, directing as a natural progression. He’s someone who has exceeded people’s predictions for him . . . someone who knows exactly where he wants to go.”

* “Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance,” Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., tonight, Thursday and Friday at 8:15 p.m. $22.75-$67.75. (213) 480-3232.