Evil Dead: the Musical
Ghost Light Theater, Turners Falls
For the first 45 minutes, the crowd clapped for the songs and laugh-groaned at the corny jokes. It wasn’t until Ash, our zombie-fighting hero (played by Joe Van Allen) grabbed a chainsaw and severed his own demonically-possessed hand that the front row — sprayed with a geyser of stage blood — started cheering. In these giddy pre-Halloween weeks, gore is just what the witch doctor ordered.
Sam Raimi’s 1981 gross-out horror classic Evil Dead — plus its two comedy-minded sequels — delivered the red stuff in buckets, and that film franchise still stands as an exemplary blend of silly and scary holiday fare. I’m happy to report that Ghost Light Theater’s new production of Evil Dead: the Musical — the hit Canadian rock and roll parody that ran Off-Broadway in 2006 — delivers on that tradition, played with a twisted sense of humor.
Anyone who has seen a few cabin-in-the-woods fright flicks can guess what will happen when a group of five bright-eyed Michigan State students camp out at a remote lodge in the middle of nowhere for the weekend.
The cellar trapdoor flies open, and they investigate beneath the house, where they find an ancient Sumerian book of the dead along with a tape recording made by the professor who brought the artifact back to the States. The incantations on the cassette bring forth evil spirits from the woods to possess the students, and one by one they meet death at each other’s hands (well, except the hand that meets the chainsaw).
In the film, funny scenes become increasingly, uncomfortably gory, much to the delight of horror fans. But Evil Dead: the Musical is all shenanigans, performed with a shrug. The libretto is mostly film dialogue, snarked up with self-aware pop references, while the contemporary rock score veers from treacly love ballad (“Housewares Employee”) to brassy Chicago-style showstopper (“Look Who’s Evil Now”) to softshoe shuffle (“Bit Part Demon”) to Beach Boys doo-wop (“All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons”).
This is a fast-paced and gleeful send-up, insistently idiotic, that pours loads of demented dark comedy and campy frivolity into its scenes of corporeal crimes. The cast executes all those slicings, dicings, and assorted end-of-lifings with gladiatorial gusto, but the in-between moments are weird and wonderful as well. Backed by solid performances from nine other actors, Van Allen skips blithely between goofy dialogue and choreographed dance numbers.
Singing chops and physical comedy skills vary among the ensemble — the vocals by actresses Samantha Hinds and Erin Fitzgerald are especially strong. And as a leader of the undead, Colin Allen’s physical comedy outclasses his castmates. But it’s hard to begrudge these eager actors their ramshackle show. It takes talent to do bad theatre well. On opening night, their characters were having the time of their (short) lives, and the responsive audience ate it up.
Is it scary? I’ve seen more suspenseful episodes of Blue’s Clues. But is it gory? You bet. Some audience members wore rain ponchos to protect from the flying fluids. Others went commando, wearing white T-shirts with red bullseyes drawn on. Happily, neither group left un-splattered. If you booked a ticket to watch the blood rain down, you’ll grade this show by the type it is: A-Positive.
Directed by Kevin Tracy; playing through Oct. 31. Tickets available at ghostlightmass.org
— Hunter Styles, hstyles@valleyadvocate.com
