“I feel bad for my mom,” says actress and director Caitlin O’Connor. “I always do shows that my mom wouldn’t want to watch. She saw Cabaret, where I was a Kit Kat girl, which is sketchy. Then she saw me do Spring Awakening, which is sketchy. Now she’ll see me doing Evil Dead The Musical.”
A relative newcomer to the Peterborough theatrical community, Caitlin — along with producer Barb Mills and musical director Ryan Browne — is bringing the cult musical Evil Dead The Musical to Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St. E, Peterborough) for four shows between October 18th to 20th.
The inaugural show for Caitlin’s theatre company, Killer Tree Productions (a name inspired by the show itself), Evil Dead The Musical has already created an incredible buzz, making it the hottest show of the season.
Based on the cult splatter Evil Dead films written and directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell as the lead character Ash Williams, Evil Dead The Musical is a modern Canadian entertainment success story.
First developed by four Queen’s University students (Christopher Bond, Frank Cipolla, Melissa Morris, and George Reinblatt) for a musical theatre class project, Evil Dead The Musical made its debut at a Kingston comedy club.
However, when the group got the approval of Raimi and Campbell, they moved it to Toronto for a well-received production in 2003, and revived it as part of the Montreal Comedy Festival in 2004.
Winning audience approval as well as a quick cult following, the show moved to New York in November 2006, where it was performed eight shows a week at the New World Stage until February 2007. Since then it has returned home to Toronto many times, and has been performed throughout Canada and the US, including a North America touring group in 2014-2015.
Caitlin first saw a midnight performance of Evil Dead The Musical in Detroit.
“I went into school in Windsor for music theatre performance, and we went to Detroit for a midnight showing of Evil Dead, which blew my mind,” she says. “When I was in my final year we had to produce an entire scene, with lights, makeup, stage and everything, and I produced The Necronomicon. It’s become my dream to do this show, because it is my favorite show. It’s a weird, kooky, cheesy, hammy thing.”
To create the musical stage version of Evil Dead, Caitlin (who plays Ash’s girlfriend Linda in the show) has pulled together an interesting group of performers including Lindsay Barr as Cheryl, Lance Issacs as Scotty, Carly Evans as Shelly, Meisha Browne as Annie, Addisson Wylie as Ed, Brandon Remmelgas as Jake, Kat Shaw in various roles, and Andrew Little as the show’s larger-than-life hero Ash.
But what makes this cast so interesting is that, with the exception of a few performers, most have had little experience in musical theatre but are better known in Peterborough as musicians. The result is a cast of fresh faces instead of all the usual suspects.
“I want to focus on bringing in people who are not necessarily musical theatre driven,” Caitlin explains. “I love being in a show with people who are musical theatre driven, but there is something about watching Lindsay grow in her amazement and her love for this. Or someone like Lance and watching him get into his role.
“I love seeing people grow into something they would never normally do. I’ve been that person. Everybody has been there, where it’s their first show and they feel a little out of place. I want that to be a good place, and I want it to be fun.”
“This has truly converted me,” says Lindsay Barr, who is making her acting debut in Evil Dead The Musical. “It’s answered a lot of performance questions in me that I cannot access through playing music in a bar situation, or with a traditional rock band. The possibilities is endless in being able to play another character, and being able to be super creepy without anybody telling me to shut up is amazing. I feel that this is the beginning of a musical theatre journey for me.”
“It’s been a cool fusion between live theatre and live music performance,” adds Addison Wylie. “It’s been a flawless between the two worlds.”
The show has given actress Carly Evans, who has appeared in shows locally with the Anne Shirley Theatre Company, a look at the other side of performance through the influence of her cast mates.
“This has been a way to connect with people that are in the straight up music field, because I’ve been involved in only musical theatre,” Carly says. “I now want to do some open mic nights.”
VIDEO: Evil Dead The Musical in the Media
While the majority of the cast has some wiggle room in developing their characters for the show, Andrew Little has some very big shoes to fill in recreating the role of Ash for the musical stage.
“The main thing that has been challenging to me is to pay homage to the classic character that has this massive cult following, without mimicking Bruce Campbell at all,” Andrew says. “I want to put my own spin on the character, but at the same time there is so much expectation, and so many iconic lines.”
“The more I watch the movies, the more I realize that Ash is an attitude as opposed to a delivery or physicality. What makes Ash to me is the attitude. His bravado. His machismo. Without it the character falls flat. He’s larger than life.”
Starting with a quiet buzz on Facebook this summer, Evil Dead The Musical has quickly become one of the most anticipated shows of the current theatrical season, partly due to its cult status, but also due to the fact that the show seems to have emerged out of nowhere. Originally planned for three performances, with advance ticket sales being so positive (the opening night is nearly sold out), the company was able to add a fourth midnight performance on October 20th.
Furthermore, Market Hall and the Trent Film Society will be cross promoting the show with a screening of Evil Dead 2 on October 11th at 8 p.m.. The cast of Evil Dead The Musical will be meeting at Millennium Park for a “deadite” walk to Market Hall, and will be giving a sneak peek of the show before the film.
“You don’t really see shows like this in Peterborough very often,” says Lance Issacs who, like Lindsay Barr, is making his theatrical debut in the show. “Part of the reason I really wanted to get involved is because it’s so weird. I think that’s what has attracted a lot of people. Whatever life we can breathe into the arts community in Peterborough, we are doing that.”
VIDEO: Evil Dead (1981) – Trailer
Although this is her first time directing a show in Peterborough, Caitlin acknowledges the great support the community has given her in helping an unconventional production like Evil Dead The Musical become a reality.
“We don’t have a rehearsal space, so the support from this community has been amazing,” Caitlin states. “Long & McQuaide has given us rehearsal space for some nights. We’re at Revolutions Dance Studio because they have offered us rehearsal space. Gorilla Studios gave us space. We’ve done houses, and anyone who will have the Evil Dead cast. It’s been a really supportive endeavor.”
But mainly the focus on the creative side of Evil Dead The Musical has been to have fun. Filled with comedy, action, gore, and Kandarian demons, Evil Dead The Musical is one of the funniest and freshest shows I’ve ever seen, not to mention the only show I’ve ever seen four times.
“I’ve never seen anybody come out of this show without the biggest grin,” says Caitlin. “If I can have three people leave this show and have them say ‘I want to do something like this,’ I’ve met my goal.”
Evil Dead The Musical runs from October 18th to 20th at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre. Shows start at 8 p.m., with a special midnight performance on Friday, October 20th. Advance tickets are $23 general admission ($28 at the door), $18 for students, and $33 for seats in the “splatter zone” (front-of-the-theatre seating where the audience gets splattered with demon blood throughout the performance — dress accordingly).
