I went to the Evil Dead musical yesterday because a friend got me a ticket for my birthday. I have to say it was one of the best things I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s been a while since I saw any of the Evil Dead movies (I only own Army of Darkness) but it all started coming back as the show went on. I had a lot of questions going in wondering just how much of the movies they would be able to translate to the stage and I was pleasantly surprised in numerous occasions. The theater itself was pretty small so even though we were near the back it was still easy to see everything. I don’t know which rows count as the “splatter aisles” but at the very least the people in the first few rows did indeed emerge covered in fake blood. I can tell some of them purposely wore white shirts knowing that.
I think what worked the best was that the adaptation was very self aware so it never took itself seriously. The original films never did either, and that spirit carried over very well. There are a lot of great songs in it with some hilarious choreography, plus songs by characters you wouldn’t expect them to be from. It started off fairly slow and it takes a while for Ash to get into his element but once it happens it just becomes a laugh riot. The guy playing Ash was really good, looked great covered in blood and also did a great deadite hand routine. There aren’t a ton of really badass Ash lines in Evil Dead II, so they handily borrowed just about every iconic Ash line from Army of Darkness and put it in. It’ll never sound like it does when Bruce Campbell says it but it worked nice on stage.
The use of the set and lighting was also very impressive they managed to do a lot like the talking animal heads, the disembodied head, hand and such. At first I was thinking that they were playing up the whole “splatter aisle” thing too much and weren’t going to pay off, but during the climax the blood sprays from everywhere and everyone. I still could’ve used more but it was immensely satisfying to see and very entertaining.
Really you don’t have to be the biggest fan of the Evil Dead series to have a good time at this show. Of course you’ll understand all the references if you’re a big fan but it’s still fun musically and also ultimately quite impressive technically. Tickets aren’t that much, I highly recommend it.
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