Evil Dead…the Musical? Yes, it is true. The Moraine Valley Academic Theater will be performing Evil Dead: The Musical during the post-Halloween/pre-Thanksgivisng limbo in November. In honor of this big event, we librarians have compiled a list of useful (fun?) resources to help anyone in the audience to be better informed/prepared for what they are going to witness…
- Evil Dead: The Musical: Be warned, this is a link to the Wikipedia entry on Evil Dead: The Musical, but, to be honest, this is one of the best sources we have found out there on the Web. Watch out for the typical Wikipedia pitfalls, but this is a good starting point to learn about the musical.
- “Musicals Glean Inspiration from films”: A short article from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television.
- “Music and Mayhem – Blood Trail Included”: The New York Times comparing Evil Deal to Rocky Horror.
- “A Bloody Good Time”: Entertainment Weekly asks, “Where did this musical come from?”
- “Might of the Living Dead – A ghoulish genre gets new life”: Publishers Weekly ask, “Are Zombies the new Vampires?”“What Some Ghosts Don’t Know: Spectral Incognizance and the Horror Film” (MVCC ID required to view off campus): An academic article about horror film.
- “Raising the Dead” (MVCC ID required to view off campus): Traditional zombie movies have no direct antecedent in the written word because of the monsters’ essentially visual nature; zombies don’t think or speak–they simply act. This unique embodiment of horror recalls Sigmund Freud’s concept of the uncanny, which finds itself better suited to filmic representations rather than prose renditions.
Here are a few books that you can pick up here in the library:
- The Horror Film: An Introduction by Rick Worland PN1995.9.H6 W64 2007
- The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal PN1995.9.H6 S57 2001
- Vampire legends in contemporary American culture : what becomes a legend most by William Patrick Day PS374.V35 D39 2002
Want to watch some films? Here are some DVDs:
- Dracula PN1995.9.D64 D733853 2006
- Carrie PN1997 .C367 1976
- The Ring PN1997 .R58 2005
Here is the blurb about the musical from the MVCC theater site:
- Evil Dead: The Musical, Nov. 5-7 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 p.m.Dorothy Menker Theater, Directed by Tommy HenselBook & Lyrics By George Reinblatt, Music By Frank Cipolla/Christopher Bond/Melissa Morris/George Reinblatt: Based on Sam Raimi’s 1980s cult classic films, Evil Dead tells the tale of five college kids who travel to a cabin in the woods and accidentally unleash an evil force. And although it may sound like a horror, it’s not! The songs are hilariously campy, and the show is bursting with more farce than a Monty Python skit. As musical mayhem descends upon this sleepover in the woods, “camp” takes on a whole new meaning with uproarious numbers like All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons, Look Who’s Evil Now and Do the Necronomicon.