Well folks. Here it is: My big regret. I was actually pretty excited to audition for this last year, but I couldn’t – but good grief, I should’ve anyway. Returning for another very short run in Toronto after staging out west, and before heading off to the world-famous Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, is Evil Dead 1&2: The Musical.
The Musical? You say? My oh my. And does it ever work. In fact, the entire show is a meshing of all three movies into one single cabin trip.. with a slight 13th century trip at the end. And folks, the folks know their stuff. Absolutley everything is referenced: the big one-liners that’d you’d expect – Come Get Some – Honey, you got real ugly, etcetc — Right down to the REALLY dedicated references. – They even have a production referencing poster torn in half. (that’s for the hard core people). And yes, there’s even a self-propelled, forward, hand-thrown somersault. The first 3 rows of the theatre? – The Blood Spray section. Oh the joy.
The gorgeous thing about this musical is this 1) The over-the-top fare of the movies really provides an awful lot of slack for props that are purposefully cheesy looking. The props that are used are very well made and the cheap “camera tricks” of the first 2 movies, allows for very successful stage tricks. and 2) – Ever watch figure skating?, not that you should BUT, you often hear people judging a performance based on “It really looks like they’re having fun out there”. This applies here in spades. Many of the cast have worked together on Tony and Tina’s Wedding and obviously have a dubious love for these films. And don’t even get me started on the songs. Extremely funny stuff. Especially the love song(s) and the crowd favourite: “What the F#@$ Was That”?
Folks, tickets are 25 bucks at the Bathurst Street Theatre at 8pm tonight until the 26th. GO!!! Seriously.
Here’s their webpage again: www.evildeadthemusical.com