Evil Dead The Musical

by sophie on November 28, 2013 at 10:23 am

Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, 2004. A much younger (and thinner) Sophie is dragged to a representation of this production somewhat reluctantly.

I don`t need to tell anyone who`s known me longer than a day that i am a huge chicken shit, and cannot stand anything zombie related. Sure, i saw The Trilogy. Did it give me nightmares?

…maybe.

Okay yes.

So i was hesitant to see this show, even though it was advertized as a musical comedy.

I was blown away. I laughed the whole way through and went home belting out what i could remember of the songs. I bought the CD when it came out! I grabbed tickets to something like 4 more representation of the show within the time it ran in Montreal, and i was sad when it was over. I followed the show`s success along the years, reading about representations in over 100 cities worldwide. I was just dying to hear it would return to my hometown, but no such luck.

So when i heard it was returning to Toronto this year, the city where it originated, Scottish Boy and i booked a bus ride as soon as tickets were confirmed with their lovely, lovely publicist.

Photo by David Hou

I totally squee`d when i saw the giant Book Of The Dead lit up on stage, then the curtains were drawn back and my eyes lit up and i went full fangirl! I must have turned to Scottish Boy and said “omg I love this part” like 12 times. Bless his patience. I was so happy to see Ryan Ward returned to play Ash! He is incredibly expressive and his comedic timing is fantastic. It warmed my nostalgic little heart to hear him sing about S-Mart and zombies again.

Photo by David Hou

The rest of the cast was all new to me, and i was very curious to see how they would live up to my idealistic memories of the Montreal show. In particular, the character Reliable Jake had a special place in my heart, and i was thrilled to see actor Daniel Williston do him justice. The rest of the cast was incredibly dynamic and i wish i could go see it all again tomorrow!

We didn`t get to sit in the Splatter Zone, unfortunately, as those tickets are the most popular and booked pretty far in advance. So i watched jealously as the first 4 rows were doused, sprayed, showered and painted with stage blood from head to toe. That is the one difference i noticed compared to the Montreal show actually… the amount of blood used has largely been increased hahaha they even have blood sprinklers on the ceiling above the crowd!