So, as I was saying, we're into the weird stuff. Let's do a quick recap of the previous two shows we went to:
Lord of the Rings: The Musical. This was, unfortunately, not especially good. There was a reason Peter Jackson spread it over 3 movies, and even then could not cover everything from the books. So, cut the running time by 75%, add singing and dancing, and then cast this alleged actor as Gandalf (the man's delivery of lines makes William Shatner into Olivier). What do you get? A right mess. On the plus side, the effects were fantastic. Hobbits they got right. The Balrog, well, that was a lot of flashing lights and smoke effects. The spider was cool. The music? All instantly forgettable. I really wanted to like it, I really did. I see that the London edition is about to open, perhaps they have improved it. I know that they've cut some characters, and they also very wisely did not bring Brent Carver along. They did bring Michael Therriault, Toronto's Gollum, which is also wise, as he was hands down the strongest performer in it. Best of luck to them.
Edward Scissorhands. This turned out not be so much a musical as interpretive dance. No, really. But it was not all that bad, either. The story was tricky to follow, a) if you had not seen the film, as there is no dialogue at all, nor are there lyrics to any of the pieces of music, and b) even if you had, elements of the film are in some cases changed or skipped, and other events and details are added. Again, some of the techniques used for scene staging and props are cleverly done, and the music is largely taken from Danny Elfman's contributions to the original film, so you get what you expect. This only played in Toronto for a few days on a tour, so who knows where it is now.
I'm still glad that I saw those two productions, though. While the former did not live up to my expectations, and while my expectations for the latter were simply wrong, I got exactly what I wanted, and then some, with Evil Dead. We had seen it before, in the summer of 2003, when it was still in its early ghetto version with cardboard props at the Tranzac Club in the Annex. Even then, lineups went down the street. But even then the basis was there, the crazy campy songs, the purposely cliched dialogue, in some parts from the movies, in others new. We've been looking forward ever since for the eventual return of the show, after its Montreal and New York runs, with the promised better and bigger production, and Friday night we went to see it.
Well, they've put the money in exactly the right places. They've now got lighting and better sound than before, they may have spent some of it on better actors on the female side, but the originals weren't that bad to begin with. I only mention the women, because Ash is still, as he has since the beginning, being played by Ryan Ward, who does a fantastic job. His best bud in the first act, Scott, is still played by Matt Olmstead, who is drop dead (sorry) funny. They also seem to have increased the budget for blood - a highlight now is that the first 2 or 3 rows are designated as a "splatter zone". Most people seated there wore white t-shirts to better show off the carnage. The worst we got was the woman next to H lost track of her beer in the dark and dumped it into H's lap - didn't apologize either, just handed her a napkin. (What a stupid bitch, as Scott would say.) The show is deliberately campy and messy, and as such, succeeds where those other shows failed. It knows exactly what to deliver and how best to do so, and it even gives you songs to take away in your head - "Cabin in the Woods", is certainly a toe-tapper, although I think we are both partial to the tango stylings of "What the Fuck was That?", and you haven't lived until you've seen Ash sing "Die" while cutting off his girlfriend's head with a chainsaw and trying to sing through a mouthful of blood. You really haven't. See it. See it now.
No comments:
Post a Comment