Fangoria Feature - October 24 2006
http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=3009
The EVIL DEAD Go Off-Broadway
By DAN SCAPPEROTTI
After wowing horror and theater fans alike in Canadian engagements a couple of years back (see article here), EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL has at last arrived in New York, taking over Stage One, a 499-seat venue that’s part of the New World Stages complex (340 West 50th Street). Bucking the trend of failed stage versions of horror films (the Broadway graveyard is littered with such projects as the recently deceased LESTAT, DRACULA and the severely underrated DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES), writer/composer George Reinblatt, director/composer Christopher Bond, composer/music supervisor Frank Cipolla and composer Melissa Morris have brought their production from the Great White North to the Great White Way, intending to tap into the cult audiences that made the original production of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS such a hit. Currently in previews, the show opens officially Wednesday, November 1; that night and the next, none other than Bruce Campbell will be on hand to join in the fun (see www.evildeadthemusical.com for more info and tickets).
Four years ago, Reinblatt and his friends, all EVIL DEAD fans, created the musical version of Sam Raimi’s 1983 gorefest about a group of friends who take a trip to a desolate cabin in the woods, where they’re soon possessed by demons and the blood starts flying. The original venue was the Tranzac Club, a small Toronto bar; the group contacted New Line Cinema, which owns the rights to the original film, and inked an agreement for a one-shot deal. “It caught on in Toronto and got this huge crowd,” Reinblatt says. “THE EVIL DEAD has a huge fan base, and they really loved the play. We then got picked up by the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal.” After a month in that city, and with interest in the show exploding, the producers put the show on hiatus for two years while they tweaked the script before coming to New York.
Although he wrote the lyrics for the production’s many songs, Reinblatt admits he has no formal training in this area. “The thing about this show is that people who’ve seen it say it’s a musical for people who don’t like musicals,” he notes. “It’s like what I’ve always wanted to see in a musical. It’s funny and goofy, with organs and blood shooting all around while people are singing. But musical fans love it as well, because it’s completely fresh.”
Adapting the ’83 film’s screenplay to the stage was a tricky proposition, as there weren’t enough bodies in the movie to suit Reinblatt. “The plot of THE EVIL DEAD can be a touch thin,” he admits, “so what we did was combine the plots of the original and EVIL DEAD II. In many ways, it’s the same movie and follows the same plot structure, but [merging them] gave us more people to kill. The biggest challenge was taking all the favorite moments from both movies and putting them onto a live stage. We chop off Ash’s hand and it had to run around the room, so we found a way to do that. We needed blood to fly everywhere, so we found a way for everyone to be covered in it. We found ways for heads to fly off and people to run around headless. Half the fun of coming to the show, if you know the movie, is seeing just how we pulled it off; and for people who haven’t seen the movie, it’s just neat to see period.” Louis Zakarian, a veteran of NY indie horror films, Broadway genre fare and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, created the makeup FX for EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL.
One of the initial movie’s most dramatic setpieces is the brutal assault on Cheryl, played by Ellen Sandweiss: When she tries to escape into the forest, she’s attacked by vines and branches. “That’s done in a unique way,” Reinblatt explains. “It looks like the world’s worst grade-school play. We have actors dressed as trees, which gets a big laugh out of the audience. It’s not as harsh as it was in the film, but it’s fun. This play is a comedy more then anything else; it does stay true to THE EVIL DEAD, but it focuses way more on the laughs, and that’s what we were looking to get from that scene.”
The off-kilter sense of humor finds its way into the musical numbers as well. “When the girls first turn into demons, Ash and Scott sing ‘What the F**k Was That?’ together, because they don’t know what’s going on when all hell breaks loose,” Reinblatt says. “It’s like in all the horror movies when no one knows what’s happening; it’s what’s on all their minds. That song is like a tango, and it’s pretty crazy. There’s another scene where Annie, whose boyfriend was killed and turned into a demon, realizes that her father was also killed by one, and sings a lament called ‘All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons.’ Some of the songs are actually named after famous lines from the movies, like ‘Join Us,’ which is what all the demons in the house say in the first film. When the demons come to life, they have a dance number called ‘Do the Necronomicon’ to honor the Book of the Dead.” Three new tunes were added for the show’s Manhattan incarnation.
A new set, primarily based on the interior of the haunted cabin, was created for the New York theater by Tony Award winner David Gallo, who was also responsible for DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES’ production design. “David’s a big EVIL DEAD fan, and took the job right after he won the Tony for THE DROWSY CHAPERONE,” Reinblatt reveals. “The whole set is rigged for a number of surprises. The whole cabin comes to life. Practically everything you see is gimmicked so that it will move. It’s pretty crazy.”
Ryan Ward, who steps into Campbell’s shoes as Ash, originated the role in Canada and is teamed for the latest incarnation with New York actors Jennifer Byrne, Jenna Coker, Renée Klapmeyer, Brandon Wardell, Darryl Winslow, Tom Walker, Ryan Williams and Amy Shute. “Ryan Ward is spot-on, and lives and breathes Ash,” says Reinblatt. New to this production, co-directing with Bond and serving as choreographer, is three-time Tony winner Hinton Battle. The actor’s big-screen credits include the choreography for the Outkast movie IDLEWILD and a role in the upcoming feature version of DREAMGIRLS, but he’s best-known to genre fans for playing the musical demon Sweet in the “Once More, With Feeling” episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
But blood is the show’s main ingredient, and the creative team isn’t frugal when it comes to throwing it around. “The whole front three rows are called the Splatter Zone,” Reinblatt says, “because the blood flies off the stage and hits the people in front. A lot of our fans are really crazy; they’ll come over and over again, and most of them just want to get covered with it.”
Reinblatt shares this devotion, and believes that’s a major factor in producing a stage show that will entertain those who love the movies. “I am a big fan of all the [EVIL DEAD] films, as is almost everyone involved. We wanted to do them justice and bring them to the next level. EVIL DEAD fans are a fickle bunch, but thus far they’ve all been pretty pleased with what we’ve done. That’s a big compliment, because we tried to stay true to the films.”
