How to go
What: Evil Dead: The Musical
When: Nov. 6-8
Where: The Victoria Theatre, 138 N. Main St.
Cost: $25-60. Buy tickets at ticketcenterstage.com
More Info: victoriatheatre.com
If you thought the zombies, ghouls, and spirits would be gone after Halloween, the Victoria Theatre will prove you wrong.
Evil Dead: The Musical kicks off Friday at the historic Victoria Theatre in downtown Dayton, and promises peals of laughter, crazy stage stunts and buckets of blood through the weekend.
It's been 12 years since noted Canadian comedy writer George Reinblatt wrote Evil Dead: the Musical with fellow comedy writer Christopher Bond, based off of the 1980s cult horror movie series, and Reinblatt, who wrote the book and lyrics, called it "the craziest theater experience you'll ever see."
“There’s more comedy in it than you can ever imagine, and really, nothing scary,” he said. “It’s pure fun the whole way.”
Yes, it is based off of Sam Raimi's (of Spiderman fame) gory, outrageous series, blending aspects from the films Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness. But you don't have to be a franchise fan, or even a horror movie fan, to enjoy the antics of Evil Dead: The Musical.
“The first movie started as a traditional horror movie, but there was something a bit goofy about it,” Reinblatt said. “Maybe it was on purpose; maybe it was just low budget. But the second one became more slapstick, and the third one just went over the top. Our show goes one step further, adding singing and dancing to amp up the ridiculousness.”
Reinblatt has written for Canada's Walk of Fame and Just For Laughs, and more recently for many Comedy Central Roasts for celebrities like Justin Bieber and James Franco. The comedic aspect of Evil Dead: The Musical came naturally, then; the musical theater part? Actually, not as much.
“I have no experience with musical theater; these are actually the first songs I’ve ever written,” he said with a laugh. “But I do have musical ability in a lot of my writing.” While all the lyrics are his, he and Bond enlisted help from Frank Cipolla, Melissa Morris for the music. The play was his and Bond’s from Day One.
"(Bond) had a thought of, what if we made Evil Dead II into a show," Reinblatt said. As they looked into the idea, it evolved into having the whole franchise involved.
Plotwise, it’s easy for anyone to follow along: Five college students are in a cabin in the woods and unleash an evil spirit, and all one by one turn into demons.
“Everyone gets killed multiple times, then we shoot a lot of blood on the audience,” Reinblatt said.
The dialogue is saucy, full of biting wit and sexual innuendo, and for die-hard Evil Dead fans who worry that choice scenes might be ruined by a lack of movie special effects, Reinblatt assures that where there's a will, there's a way.
“A guy gets his hand chopped off, and it comes to life,” he said. “There are scenes where a headless body comes around. We have a lot of cool special effects that I think people get shocked that we can pull off on stage.”
The front two rows are part of “The Splatter Zone,” where patrons get covered in fake blood during certain scenes and those tickets sell out first for every show, he said.
That says a lot about the level of fan commitment Evil Dead: The Musical commands. Since it was first opened on a bar stage in Toronto, it's blown up, opening off Broadway in 2006, and now with 150 productions in cities around the world.
“Twelve years ago, we didn’t have YouTube; as a struggling writer, we decided to make it a play because it was way too much money to put on a movie production,” Reinblatt said. “We expected the play to run for two weeks, maybe get a mention in a local Toronto paper. We had no idea that it would be traveling around the world 12 years later.”
And if you’ve gotten your ticket, make sure to show up early to the show: The Victoria Theatre will have local artists stationed around the lobby, using face paint to turn patrons into the Undead free of charge.
And if you're still on the fence about attending, remember that you don't need to be a horror fan, or even a big theater fan, to enjoy Evil Dead: The Musical. You just need to come ready to laugh all the demons away.
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