Evil Dead the Musical: You either get it or you don’t. There are some fairly rabid fans of this, not unlike The Rocky Horror Show followers, although it hasn’t gotten to the point of shouting the lines along with the actors, at least on opening night at Stray Dog’s third production of this show.
There’s nothing at all serious about a musical covering a horror movie franchise, certainly. It’s totally played for laughs, not suspense – to say it’s played broadly would be vastly understating things. Creepy cabins. Hormone-infested teenagers. Mysterious findings from an absent professor.
There’s a reason the first three rows of seating are covered, for this show, in plastic. The first two rows, “The Splatter Zone” are premium seating and include a t-shirt with the show’s logo, which is handed out before the show. The third, which is part of the open seating, is covered just in case, and it was a good thing, too. The chainsaw- and firearm-related splatter are pretty much the point of the whole evening.
That’s not to say the cast didn’t lean into it. Pretty much everything is delivered full tilt, except a few bars of some of the songs. Riley Dunn’s Ash, the leading man, is an iron-jawed guy wooing the beautiful Shelly, Dawn Schmid, who understands she’s almost better than he deserves. The other couple is Scott, Stephen Henley, and Shelly, Jennelle Gilreath. Scott’s the guy some of us want to march up to onstage and smack. It’s not that his being there is primarily for sack time with Shelly, who’s, uh, totally up for it. It’s his unbearable treatment of Ash’s sister Cheryl, Christen Ringhausen, blithely accepted by Ash.
A good time is also had by Maria Bartolotta as Annie, the professor’s daughter, Corey Fraine as Ed, her boyfriend, Josh Douglas as Jake, the country guy who leads those two up the wooded path, and Kevin O’Brien. “Bit-Part Demon” from Corey Fraine was perhaps the funniest song of the night. And a serious tip of the cap to Douglas, who voiced the moose, a spot-on rendition of Captain Kangaroo’s friend’s great pipes.
Justin Been directed, Tyler Duenow brings his usual skills with lights, Eileen Engel did the costumes, and the makeup is from Sarah Castelli - a show like this must be quite an undertaking. Josh Smith did the scenic design, more complicated that it appears on entering the theater.
Fun if you’re in the right mood.
Evil Dead the Musical
through October 27
Stray Dog Theatre
2336 Tennessee Ave.
314-865-1995