Look who’s Evil now

Center stage and practically drowning in a wash of ominous red light, the Necronomicon stares vacantly into the audience as we quickly fill the Alt Theater’s modest seating. The first three rows – the splatter zone – are provided ponchos. I sit in the general admissions section, which has a better view but none of the blood, and can’t be sure if I’m jealous. You’ve always looked good in blood is what my mother always tells me.

There’s a diverse crowd tonight, not nearly the monolithic Evil Dead fan base I was expecting. Executive looking go-getters sit next to an adorable elderly couple who sit next to a pair of 30-somethings who look more or less like what I’d imagined would be the majority of the turnout. As some of the more distinguished looking men and women put their ponchos on, I wonder why you’d pay the extra money to sit in the S-Zone if you’re not going to really wallow in it. My girlfriend reminds me that not all people are looking to have their clothes ruined with fake blood. It’s easy to forget that not everybody thinks exactly like I do, I say, only half joking. A door slams shut from somewhere behind me and chains rattle to my right. The lights go down.

But before going any further, some back story is probably in order. Back in 1981, the original Evil Dead movie was released. The budget was hilariously small but the cast and crew were ambitious and made due with what they had. Necessity being what it is, the crew came up with a boatload of camera techniques that director Sam Raimi (and his imitators) still uses to this day.

In theaters the film had a pretty small run despite (whatever it’s worth) a glowing review from Stephen King. But from what I’m told by wizened 30-somethings, in the 1980s America was in the middle of the VHS boom, and that was the medium through which Evil Dead really made its mark. Gaining fans over the next few years, the film slowly became a staple in any dignified B-Horror fan’s library.

Speaking as someone who’s never had the chance anyway, it’s hard to imagine seeing Evil Dead in a big theater or at least not when it first came out. Like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, much of the fun is in knowing the lines before the characters say them, and as much as I love the movie, I’ll concede that it’s not for everyone. So I can imagine that the original big screen showings were somewhat awkwardly split between the fans and the disappointed movie-goers.

By the early 2000s, with two sequels under its belt, The Evil Dead was a bone fide franchise. Raimi was directing Spider Man movies and Bruce Campbell, hero and star in all three of The Deads, was...well...he was the usher in Spider Man 2. He was also the star of a few other cult hits, most notably Bubba Ho-Tep, a movie I cannot recommend highly enough.

So in 2003 when a group of ambitious young people in Toronto decided to turn the trilogy into a stage musical, it was only fitting that they too started modestly. More to the point, their first run was held in the back room of a small bar, the Tranzac Club. Shortly after their first show, as we Deadites are often somewhat fanatical in our devotion to the series, they had an admissions line curling around the block every night. After that first run in Toronto, in 2006 Evil Dead: The Musical enjoyed huge off-Broadway success in New York City and soon theater companies from all over the world began buying up the rights to the show and putting it on for themselves.

Which is why I’m sitting in Buffalo’s own Alt theatre, on the pen ultimate night of their production, trying not to squeal in anticipation as the lights go down and the cast take their places. There can’t be more than 100 of us in the audience and every seat is filled, numerous Evil Dead shirts in attendance. But as I mentioned before, we Deadites aren’t the only ones here, the production having gained a reputation as being accessible even to the uninitiated.

The first song, “Cabin in the Woods,” is a quick, upbeat number that sets the scene well, filling the audience in on what little back story there is to know while liberally taking self-referential pot shots (“What could possibly go wrong with five college students breaking in to an old abandoned cabin in the woods when nobody knows where we are?”). It’s a great tune that had me bobbing my head and grinning the whole time.

The rest of act one goes by in a similarly grin-worthy fashion, with some other notable musical numbers being “What the F*** was That?!” and “Good Old Reliable Jake,” both of which are catchy and hilarious.

Not to spoil anything, but the basic plot synopsis is that through recitation of passages found in the Necronomicon, an evil spirit comes and starts to inhabit some of our key players along with the woods themselves. There are some small twists and turns along the way but it mostly consists of well written musical numbers, a little bit of demon killing and some serious laughs.

All nine stage performers are good but the clear star of the show is Cheryl, played by Maria Droz. She plays kid sister to our hero Ash, decked out completely in pink, with unicorn fanny pack, Little Mermaid suitcase and heaping sugar piles of spastic energy. All of this makes for a great kid sister, but her real performance begins once she’s possessed courtesy of the Necronomicon. Her demonic Cheryl is brimming with clever pop-culture references, incestuous innuendos and filthy insults, all of which are things I enjoy. She never loses that hint of over-caffeinated kid sister, either, and the dialogue that she and Ash maintain for most of the first act is what keeps things moving so briskly. Her diminished role in act two is felt immediately.

Where the first half of Evil Dead: The Musical goes by with little in the way of down time, after intermission the experience noticeably loses steam. Characters who had previously been involved in their own plot lines are thrust into the cabin with Ash and a few of the remaining players from act one and the transition from two plot lines into one doesn’t quite deliver. It’s hard to say whether this was a fault of the actors, the original script or that the novelty had started to wane (although due to my ongoing affinity for the theatrical trilogy, I would guess that novelty wouldn’t be the issue). And where practically every song in the first half of the show is outstanding, the only song I truly thought was great in act two was “All The Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons,” which really was something special.