Evil Dead the Musical - Camp and Gore

You don’t have to be a fan of the Evil Dead films to enjoy this musical spoof playing at the Norman Rothstein Theatre, but you are going to feel a little left out if you’re not. The best thing about the evening was being surrounded by enthusiasts, on stage and off, everyone there was committed to having a silly, gory, geeky, good time. The atmosphere extended all the way out of the splash zone and spilled into the lobby.

This is not high brow humour, but it is well-executed. The set was more high-tech than I had been expecting, without losing its low-budget charm. The song and dance numbers were slick and downright impressively acrobatic at times. There was a moment that had me hopeful when Cheryl, played by Jennie Neumann, turned into a demon and took on a different physicality for “Look Who’s Evil Now”, but by the end of the song she was mostly back to normal and then she was confined to a trapdoor for the rest of the play. Neumann has an expressive voice, and although there would occasionally be demon-y notes in her voice for the rest of the show, it was inconsistent. I didn’t see a change from living to dead in any of the other characters. Special effects can’t always be what we’d like, but it is amazing what an actor’s physicality and voice can do. I was sad more wasn’t made of this.

I am a big fan of the Evil Dead films, but even so the humour of DSR’s musical was too heavy-handed for my taste. I love cheesy in-jokes as a rule, but I don’t need to be hit over the head with them. As a concept, meta-foreshadowing will only carry a two hour show so far. I know the production of Evil Dead the Musical is standardized so I’m not sure how much of this is directorial choice or written into the script.

Obviously everyone knows what’s going to happen, the audience is full of fans, but if the characters had been less blasé about their fate, I would have been drawn in to the story instead of sitting back for a rather self-conscious commentary. I wanted to care. I wanted to hope in spite of myself and feel the thrill of anticipation and get the payoff of shock. Too much dramatic irony creates a two dimensional story, it’s fun, but it robs the actors of a character arc and it robs the audience of a deeper connection. As things stood it was all very one-note. A fun note, but I get bored if things don’t change.

A drawback of the spoof/tribute genre is that being compared to the original is unavoidable. Usually this is a good thing as a great deal of the script is based on references to the films. But Bruce Campbell’s portrayal of the main character, Ash, is iconic and you really are limited imitating him if you’re going to play the role, you can’t make it you own. Scott Walters bravely tackled the role of Ash and his “evil Ash” and the hand scene were spot on genius. His character voice the rest of the time was very distracting. It put me in mind of William Shatner playing the Wicked Witch of the West. I feel he could have benefited from the character more straight the rest to the time especially when delivering the quotable quotes, you have to jump in with both feet, Walters backed off from every one of them. Mat Baker’s Jake and Andrea Bailey’s two characters, Annie and Shelly, were the most fully realized.

Technically, the set was versatile enough to cover multiple locations and the media integration worked well. There were a few technical glitches on opening, including a very annoying faulty mic, but I assume they were corrected before the next show. After all the hype about the splash zone I had expected more gore, but I was more impressed by the effects of disembodied heads and limbs being worked into the choreography than the spurting blood.

This is a huge production: it’s heavy on special effects, it has a huge cast, and it has a reputation to live up to on a shoe string budget. A lot of people put a lot of time and energy into this show and I think they should be proud, it’s good fun. As a piece on its own, there are definitely things I would change, but t’s not meant to stand on its own, it’s about creating a space for fans to feel a part of something they love and DSR Productions did that very well.