Louisville Mojo: Do the Necronomicon: Evil Dead the Musical on stage in Louisville

Song and dance meets demons and chainsaws in a new Louisville production of the crowd-pleasing Evil Dead the Musical, put on by Jake Wheat and Joey Arena with The Alley Theater and Art Sanctuary. The show takes the cult movie Evil Dead, seasons it with juicy cuts from the film's campy progeny Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, and gives it all the musical-theatre treatment, with delightful results and a not-insignificant volume of stage blood. You might even get wet on this ride.

The play opens on teenagers on their way to cabin deep in the woods. There's verbally-abusive jerk Scott, his latest brainless conquest Shelly, Scott's friend and soon-to-be unlikely hero Ash, Ash's girlfriend Linda, and his bookish little sister Cheryl. It doesn't take much for the group to splinter, and the strange thumps that echo up from the cellar aren't settling anyone's nerves. Soon they discover a shotgun, an axe, a chainsaw, a leather-bound book with a twisted face on the cover, and a tape recording of a researcher reading passages of the book aloud. By playing the recording, the kids accidentally awaken the ancient evil that the book was intended to summon, or imprison.

Even if you haven't seen the movies, you probably recognize where this is going. Characters become fountains of horror—spraying blood, losing hands and heads, and generally giving comedic backbiting a lively and gruesome new spin. Chain saws roar, and teenagers-cum-demons covered in gore chant unconvincing refrains of “Join us! Join us.” Peer pressure has never been so easy to reject or oh so hard to vanquish.

The individual performances are solid, with Scott Anthony taking on the role of Ash, originally played by legendary B-actor and amply-chinned Bruce Campbell. Anthony's voice is strong in the role, and his mugging and posing on stage help to extend his chin right before your eyes. He and the other actors succeed in pulling off the show's main trick: remaining true to the amateurish camp of the film's performances, but doing so with all the exaggerated flair and punchy delivery that musical theatre can muster.

The show benefits from good acting and good choreography, but it's the high-energy delivery of hilarious, frequently self-conscious lyrics in the songs that carries the night. Among the best musical numbers are “Do the Necronomicon” and “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons,” but the show-stopper of the night is without doubt the buddy-duet “What the Fuck was That” where Ash and Scott express all the confusion and rage that comes with finding oneself trapped in an unfolding horror story.

The actors also succeed in equitably spraying, splashing, and gushing fake blood onto the first few rows of seats—a wet delight for those up close and very amusing for the rest of the crowd. Buying tickets, you get a choice of theater seating, cabaret tables, or the sellout Splatter Zone. The splatter tickets cost $5 more, but they come with safety goggles and an Evil Dead the Musical poncho. The theater also sells white "SplatterZone Survivor" shirts for thrill seekers who prefer to keep their bloodstains.

Evil Dead the Musical runs through Halloween night, with shows each Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Pointe located at 1205 E. Washington Street in the Butchertown neighborhood. Tickets run $20-$25 and are available on the website http://www.louevildead.com/ and from select local stores. If you go thirsty, you can get $2 cans of PBR, $2.50 sodas, or $4 wine.

by J. Isaac Spradlin

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blogs: Verb/Image Louisville