Evil Dead goes to Broadway!

Written by Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star including correction. Pictures are from the Montreal Mirror.

Evil Dead has life on Broadway; Fall slot for show born at Tranzac Club T.O team tore idea from '80s horror film

The dead are going to sing and dance on Broadway.

Expect an announcement from Manhattan today that Evil Dead the Musical will open there on Nov. 1 at New World Stages on W. 50th St.

This Canadian tuner is based on the 1980s cult horror films of Sam Raimi and first reached a stage at the Tranzac Club in the summer of 2003, winding up at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal the following year.

It was written by George Reinblatt, Christopher Bond and Frank Cipolla (with additional music by Melissa Morris).

Bond, who staged the original, is co-directing it in New York with three-time Tony Award winner Hinton Battle.

Another Tony winner, set designer Paul Gallo, will bring his wacky inventiveness to this show, as he did for that other Canuck musical currently doing well on Broadway, The Drowsy Chaperone.

Well-known Toronto stage producer Jeffrey (Forever Plaid) Latimer was the first to take a serious interest in the show and he will produce it in New York, along with Jenkay LLC and Just for Laughs.

Evil Dead is the classic "horny young people in a deserted cottage" scenario, where clueless kids find themselves being slaughtered by Candarian demons on a weekend they thought was going to be devoted strictly to carnal capers.

With its buzzing chainsaws and dismembered arms, Evil Dead has enough gore to make Sweeney Todd look like Annie, but somehow it winds up being fun instead of gross.

When first reviewing it in 2003, I wrote "With a bit of work, this show could go places."

And it certainly has.