Evil Dead The Musical
August 18, 2008
To start, I want to say that I’m going to avoid explaining Evil Dead The Musical is so chalked full of tribute lines that it’s a little impressive that they got some of them in. I admit that one or two of them feel a little forced, overall they had excellent delivery and got great crowd reactions. The Dialogue was pretty solid throughout the entire play, and true to the movie there were so many bad puns and plays on words that it was killing my a little on the inside.
This killing was in the best way possible, of course.
Ryan Ward does an almost creepy job of emulating Bruce Campbell while at the same time giving the role his own touch. He delivers the 12 gauge S-Mart speech so well that everyone who knew it were saying it along with him. Truly fantastic. The rest of the cast do a great job of bringing the show to life, and without them the show probably wouldn’t have been nearly as good as it was. Special mention has to be given to Tenja Hagenberg and Mike Nahrgang for standing out and nearly stealing the show with such solid acting. Truly fantastic.
The songs were, quite frankly, rather rude. I’m not complaining about it as I tend to swear more than your average sailor. The singing was entertaining, on key, and far better than I was expecting. The sound in the Diesel Playhouse really helped make the experience that much better. When you have song titles like: “Stupid Bitch”, “What the Fuck was That?”, “All the Men in my Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons”, and “Ode to an Accidental Stabbing” you know you’re in for a good show.
I have to give special mention to the props, or a lack therein. The sparcity of the props really made for an interesting performance, and really puts the pressure on the actors to deliver a strong show. The props played a subtle but important role by accenting everyones work. Especially the blood.
There was a lot of blood.
Let me take a moment to explain the ‘Splatter Zone.’ If you are sitting in the splatter zone, you will get soaked in faux-blood. They even hand out poncos to people who want them. The blood they use apparently washes out easily, but somehow still smells exactly like blood. It sorta freaked me out when I smelt it and I wasn’t even in the zone. The Splatter Zone was also completely sold out when I went to purchase tickets, though you do pay a premium to be there. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure it would have been totally worth it.
I was so entertained by the show, I and emplore everyone to go and see it. The show ends September 6th of this year, so get out and see it. For twenty bucks, you can’t go wrong.
8/10
Categories: Art Fairly Sweet Reviews
Tagged under: 8/10, Evil Dead, Reviews, Theater Reviews