The Evil Dead musical was an amusing little parody of the Sam Remi/Bruce Campbell horror films of that name. There were also some references to Army of Darkness thrown in, but by and large no scenes from that film.
I hadn’t seen the Evil Dead movies although I am a real Army of Darkness fan. Seeing them certainly wasn’t necessary, but interest in horror parody is. So if you haven’t seen Army of Darkness, see that first really.
In any event, there was a good dozen songs or so with original tunes, the tunes sometimes showed up more than once, but as far as I know they were all original to the musical. The show had some different people than the original Broadway cast, but from what I’ve listened to on the Amazon page above, I think the singers compared well. My favorite pieces were all in the second half: All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons, and the whole Necronomicon dance sequence. That said, as the title of the last song attests, it’s worth noting that this song parodies the misogyny of some horror flicks more than it subverts it.
Beyond the singing, which to my pleasure was consistently easy to understand, the acting well suited the material and the lead did a good Ash. The technical direction was definitely limited by the size of the tiny DCAC stage and I’m guessing a lower budget than the Broadway show, but on the whole it was successfully evocative and fun. On the whole, at $25 and with the inconvenient but pleasant trek to Adams Morgan from Woodly Park Metro I’d recommend this for those excited by the idea of an Evil Dead musical.
One practical note: there is some samurai film style blood fountains that splash the audience. If you want to play it safe, you may wish to bring your own tarp. They sell garbage bags with appropriate holes in them for $1, but if you’re my size those want cover your legs at all. I used a newspaper for that purpose.
Image take by Laura Darby who had been kind enough to invite me
Hey Greg!
Thanks for Coming out and seeing the show! And thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you had fun and enjoyed yourself!
-Clay Comer
Posted by: Clay Comer | October 12, 2009 at 10:42 AM
I'm extremely pleased that you enjoyed yourself, Greg! As I said before, having had seen it twice on Broadway, I was additionally impressed by the production levels of the show considering the limits of both space and budget.
I'd definitely recommend a trek to Adams Morgan for any Bruce Campbell or camp movie fan!
Posted by: Laura | October 12, 2009 at 09:18 PM
Clay: You're quite welcome, I had a good time.
Laura: Yup.
Geez, comment emails break for two weeks and I miss a whole lot.
Posted by: Greg Sanders | October 19, 2009 at 08:10 AM