Evil Dead - The Musical

Evil Dead : The Musical

Photos from the Media night before the premiere - the premiere happened on the night of the great 2003 power blackout - I later learned they went ahead with the show using flashlights!



Photos by Mark Bellis
Please feel free to use these if you are cast or crew for your portfolios!
August 13, 2003, Tranzac Theatre,
292 Brunswick Ave., Toronto, near Bloor and Bathurst just East of Honest Ed's
Next performances 20-23 August

416.723.EVIL Ticket info
or
Click to visit the musical's website for ticket info


Blue shirt - Ash (Ryan Ward) , Overalls - Jake (Daniel Krolik), Blonde, Khaki explorer shirt - Annie (Ashley Callaghan),
Brunette, black sleeved jersey - Linda (Victoria Nestorowicz), Brunette, red striped shirt - Cheryl (Danielle Meierhenry),
Blonde, busty - Shelley - (Mackenzie Lush), Plaid shirt, white pants - Scott (Matt Olmstead), Grey cardigan - Ed (Pat Brown),
Various - Tim Evans

The Necronomicon

Playing the recording that awakens the Evil

 


Cheryl develops ESP.... who's evil now?

Then Shelley....  

 






Cheryl plays the demon in the cellar played by the mother in the movie  

 





Evil Ed's solo

Annie starts translating the final pages to destroy the evil

Do the Necronomicon!

Hail to the King finale
All characters, indicia, etc., copyright their respective owners.

While there was an earlier cabaret in Chicago this year, this is the first Evil Dead musical that had the copyright owner's blessing, thanks to Bruce Campbell's intervention. Campbell made some calls after the producer wrote him. Beyond Chudleigh was formed from Queen's University drama students in 1997, and this is their first Toronto show. As you can see, it's low budget and it looks like they raided Honest Ed's for those bowls or whatever on their heads in the last scene, and the bridge that leads to the cabin is a 3 foot arch of plywood, which gets yellow taped to represent it being ripped up.
They're hoping that it would be another Rocky Horror cult hit, but 'Do the Necronomicon' needs a bit more ommph to become a 'Time Warp'. Nice Tango and Polka music though!
It borrows from all three Evil Dead movies, despite its title, Evil Dead 1 & 2: The Musical, but the best things in it were the scenes that never were in the originals, like Evil Ed's solo where he laments being a bit player who's going to be blown away by the hero in a few seconds, and the 'Do the Necronomicon' penultimate number. George Reinblatt wrote the book, after having written gags for Howie Mandel during the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal. Mandel has used Reinblatt's material on the Tonight show. Co-creator and artistic director Christopher Bond said that neither of them spoke to Campbell, but after they'd emailed him, he'd made calls on their behalf to secure the necessary permission to use the characters. "He's one of the all-time nice guys" said Chris.
Chris had been a fan of the Evil Dead for years but George had never really watched them until Chris came up with the idea when he was doing a stage version of Rocky Horror. "It was 25 years ago that Rocky Horror started as a stage play that grew into a movie." he said at the beginning of the media performance.
There's a product placement, when they use a Mastercard, one of the sponsors, to jimmy open the door.
I don't know yet what they did the next night...... August 14, 2003.... the city and much of the North-eastern part of the continent was plunged into darkness by the biggest power outage in history.