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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > October > 11 > Entry
Review: ‘Evil Dead, The Musical’
Move over “Rocky Horror.” “Evil Dead, The Musical” has come to town.
The campy musical, based on the 1981 film of the same name, opened Friday at Salvage Vanguard Theatre under the direction of Michael McKelvey. The sold-out show had opening night issues: malfunctioning microphones made some of the songs unintelligible over the live band. But even with the gaps, the show clipped along hilariously.
Like the movie, “Evil Dead The Musical,” follows five Michigan State college students as they try to make it through a night at a remote cabin surrounded by woods possessed by demon spirits.
Unlike the movie, “Evil Dead The Musical” parodies horror movie conventions, using goofy songs, one-liners, and physical gags to make fun of the characters’ misfortunes and idiotic choices. Somehow singing the ridiculous dialogue so familiar from horror movies transforms scenarios like deserted homes with only one escape routs and middle-of-the-night solo journeys into unknown woods into comedy.
Committed performances keep the constant humor fresh. David Gallagher plays the story’s hero Ash with over-the-top earnestness in even the most ridiculous predicaments. As Ash’s friends, Christopher Skillern, Kelly Bales, and Macey Mayfield played their characters’ stereotypes, frat boys and ditzy blondes, with laugh-grabbing excess. As Ash’s little sister Cheryl, Corley Pillsbury has a strong presence, even though her early zombie turn relegates her to performing most of the evening from underneath the stage. You can’t hide a good actor or a little sister gone zombie in the cellar forever.
Ginger Morris’s choreography brought the group together into odd, funny pairings, particularly in Ash and Scott’s tango “What the …?.”
The show is a whole lot of fun and looked to be even more entertaining for those brave enough to sit in the audience’s splatter section, where the show’s many gallons of fake blood first squirted, and then rained down from the stage.
‘Evil Dead, The Musical’ continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 5 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 31. Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road, $12-$22 www.salvagevanguard.com
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Comments
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By Robin Fuller
October 12, 2009 11:08 AM | Link to this
I was at the same opening night performance. The show was fantastic! But I have to wonder if the reviewer left at intermission. The second act features a whole other set of characters pulled directly from the sequel, Evil Dead 2.
Maggie Wilhite is fantastic as the overbearing know-it-all Annie. Matt Connely’s Jake is part teddy bear, part Deliverance, and part Meatloaf in “Rocky Horror”. And don’t forget David Ponton as Ed, Annie’s doormat of a boyfriend, who charms the audience as he comes to the realization that he’s just a “Bit-Part Demon.”
The show rocked! Kudos to the cast and crew. Keep Austin Evil!!