Evil Dead the Musical
New York’s New World Stage
340 West 50th St.

I love the Evil Dead series. Just about every year I sit down for a marathon of all three schlock horror classics and chime along to every one of Bruce Campbell’s catch phrases. Hell, I even had him sign his autobiography “Give me some sugar baby.” So, I was a bit shocked to find out that a musical had been made of my favorite horror movie. At first I was a bit apprehensive. I mean, come on, most musicals suck. I have about as much interest in Wicked as I do getting a rectal examination. But there I stood, on a mild November 10, waiting behind a line of metalheads, freaks, and fellow horror nerds, hoping to see my favorite horror hero Ash break out the jazz hands.

First off, the theater was awesome. We’re talking first rate modern, minimalist architecture about three stories under Manhattan. Lots of steel, modern art, and beer that you can bring with you into the theater. The building houses a few different theaters, all running medium size shows (like the Alter Boys).

The house music for Evil Dead consisted of a lovely medley of Motley Crue and Poison, which amped up the crowd to no end. When the curtain finally pulled back for the 7:30 showing, I realized that I was actually at a musical. We’re talking five college students singing in a cardboard cut out of a car, while paper animals pass by. It was so cheesy it hurt, but once the opening number was done, the inner curtain dropped to reveal a very familiar cabin, recreated meticulously.

Anyone who has ever seen the first two Evil Deads knows the basic premise of the musical: dumb college students go to an abandoned cabin in the woods, find the book of the dead, release zombies, kill each other, yadda yadda. Except in this version, they elaborate in song. Everything is gut-bustingly funny. The guy who plays Ash is dead on and they even recreate the tree-rape scene if you can believe that.

The second act becomes a gore fest as the undead begin hurling guts and blood at the poncho-clad audience. The highlight is a choreographed fight scene, which finds our hero (now sporting a hand chainsaw) sawing off heads while singing and dancing. By the end of the show, there was a pool of blood in the front few rows, and the crowd roared with joy and laughter.

So the moral to this story is, if you want people to go to musicals, give them blood, guts, gore, and demons. A little Evil Dead goes a long way.