Review: EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL Is a Gore-Splattering Good Time at Pittsburgh Musical Theater

The splash zone at the PMT West End Canopy is not messing around. Devotees of Evil Dead the Musical came in all-white clothes or purchased white ponchos and t-shirts at the concession stand. At the start of Act 1, they were merely splashed with an occasional spurt of blood or thrown foodstuffs. By the end of the show, they are drenched by a literal perpetual fountain of gore through the curtain call. While Evil Dead may not be the best of the spooky Halloween musicals on paper on on recordings, it takes on a campy, chaotic life of its own when staged this well. I say this as a compliment: PMT's Evil Dead has big Starkid energy.

Spoofing the Evil Dead trilogy, plus Sam Raimi's other film works and the "horror musical" in general, the story (what little there is) tells of a group of college students who accidentally summon zombie-like demons to their cabin in the woods: macho, heroic idiot Ash (Brett Goodnack), shy, nerdy Cheryl (Laura Barletta), aggressively douchy preppie Scott (Brecken Newton Farrell), airheaded sexpot Annie (Callee Miles) and levelheaded straight-man Linda (Emily Palmer). Soon the trees are alive, everyone but Ash is dead and/or possessed, and the stage is covered in blood and body parts... but that's only Act 1.

Director Nick Mitchell has imposed order and a freewheeling comic sensibility on the intentionally thin script by George Reinblatt. The laughs come as fast and thick as the blood spray, with sight gags, intentionally janky special effects, corny puns and pop culture references, and of course the endless gore. The songs aren't great on paper (this is sure no Rocky Horror or Little Shop of Horrors, where you'd listen to the album and be satisfied), but much like the aforementioned Team Starkid shows, this is a show where the songs serve as a joke delivery system more than as a conventional musical score. Luckily, the cast has both the singing chops and the comic sensibility to make this kind of farcical comedy shine.

Brett Goodnack supplies the comically masculine baritone, chiseled face and endearing mix of heroism and stupidity to make Ash as iconic onstage as on screen. All the famous bits are here, and Goodnack performs the legendary "Three Stooges fight with his own hand" with apolomb. His duets with Emily Palmer's Linda and Brecken Newton Farrell's Scott are both highlights of Act 1, after which he pivots from a comic lead to a slightly parodic action hero, inspired by the late-trilogy Ash. Laura Barletta's transformation from mousy to "basically Beetlejuice" is impressive, and her mix of scary and silly fits the production's tone perfectly. Callee Miles, as the two twisted "damsels in distress," steals nearly every scene she is in, playing up the cliches of "slut who dies first" and "badass action babe" while also skewering them for their predictability. Her physical comedy can go from subtle to extremely broad, but it's all performed with a keen sharpness that keeps it from feeling sloppy or hacky. Damon Oliver Jr. makes a fantastic mad scientist, all fluster and sputtering; the scene in which he appears and disappears over and over gets one of the biggest laughs of the night. Finally, attention must be paid to Daniel Lawrence, who takes the tiny role of Ed and milks laugh after laugh. It takes skill to make a mostly-mute cannibalistic demom zombie cute and endearing, and Lawrence nails it.

I admit, I went into this show skeptical, because all I knew were the songs, and I wasn't a huge fan of the Sam Raimi series. Luckily, Nick Mitchell's production has won me over, and I'm already looking forward to next year. Will I sit in the splash zone? Probably not. But I'll be cheering and jeering and doing the Necronomicon with the rest of the converts. Deadites forever! Hail to the king, baby.

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