Friday, May 18, 2012
Re-Animator the Musical Rips Up the Hayworth Theater
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| Graham Skipper and Jesse Merlin. Photos by Thomas Hargis |
If the mark of a successful musical is getting butts in seats, then the producers of Re-Animator the Musical should be laughing all the way to the blood bank. As we stood in line for the second incarnation of Stuart Gordon’s musical – the first opened early in 2011 and ran much of last year – a young woman glanced over at us and burst out, “We’re trying to get into the theatre first so we can sit in the very front row of the splash zone!”
It may have been a first-timer’s excitement or it may have been a ‘please don’t say you want to sit there too’ appeal, but in either case we laughed and said not to worry. We’d be sitting halfway back, safely out of the way of exploding intestines, blood-spurting eyeballs and the other oozing projectiles.
“Oh good,” she exclaimed. “We’ve seen it three times and we HAVE to sit in the front row!” Her friends all nodded in agreement. Repeat butts in seats. That's gold. And so begins another run of the campy, horror musical that swept last year’s local theatre awards and breathed new life into the good-doctors-gone-bad story.
West’s discovery of a fluorescent green serum that can re-animate the dead and his ongoing experiments at Miskatonic Medical School create havoc among the students and staff. The amiable Dean Halsey (George Wendt) sees nothing amiss in West’s behavior but the dean’s lovely daughter Meg (Rachel Avery) suspects he is up to no good from the beginning. When West moves into her handsome boyfriend Dan Cain’s (Chris L. McKenna) basement, the secretive experiments continue and victims start to turn up by the score. West’s nemesis, Dr. Carl Hill (Jesse Merlin), has his own sleazy agenda and the rivalry between the two doctors ends up with Hill losing his head – quite literally – and carrying it around for half of the show.
The story follows the film pretty closely and horror fans will love seeing how director Stuart Gordon brilliantly reinvents the action for the stage. There’s plenty of death, sex, horror, comedy, music, and dancing, and those sitting in the splash zone should be revved up and ready for an experience at a whole other level. (Garbage bags are passed out if you don’t bring anything to protect your clothes). Special effects have been done by Tony Doublin, John Naulin and John Beuchler, the same team who created them for the film, along with Greg McDougal and Tom Devlin. Here they are a star attraction and as funny and wrong as they are ingenious.
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| Rachel Avery with George Wendt and Jesse Merlin |
The original cast is back led by Skipper in his hilarious turn as Herbert West. George Wendt, best known as Norm on Cheers is the show’s headliner, and he goes for it, game on, all the way through. Whether he’s being thrown around the stage by a zombie or beating his head up against an imaginary wall, Wendt gets the laugh, and we love him for it. Cain and Avery provide the sex and a dose of sweetness amid the craziness happening all around them, and Merlin’s pompous Dr. Hill is full of the cocky assurance of a man who doesn’t know he’s wearing a really bad toupee.
Re-Animator’s rough edges have been spit-shined and polished without losing any of the wacky guerrilla theater energy you felt pumping in the original. The Second City/SNL treatment of the scenes allows the cast to push the heightened comedy to the outer limits of good taste but it’s all in fun. Only the undead on stage might beg to differ.
Laura Fine Hawkes’ ingenious set design consists of a single doorway that becomes the entrance to all of the locations in the musical. It’s a great use of the space that proves it’s not how big the stage is, but what you do with it that counts. Mark Nutter’s music and lyrics have also continued to morph as the show has developed over the last year. Nutter parodies a variety of styles with many of the songs following a kind of musical stream of consciousness format that features recognizable themes and funny repetitious phrases that emerge unexpectedly. Choreographer Cynthia Carle scores big with her dueling doctor tango and never misses an opportunity to have her zombies break out their Thriller moves.
Re-Animator will move on to the New York Musical Theatre Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival when it finishes its run in Los Angeles. L.A. performances are Thurs., Fri., and Sun.at 8:00, and Sat. at 7:30 and 10:30 pm through July 8 at the Hayworth Theater, 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057. For tickets call 323-960-4442 or go to www.plays411.com/reanimator.
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Re-Animator the Musical
Book: Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon and William J. Norris
Music & lyrics: Mark Nutter
Adapted from the stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Based on the film H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator produced by Brian Yuzna
Director: Stuart Gordon
Musical direction and arrangements: Peter Adams
Choreography: Cynthia Carle
Keyboards: David O. & Brian Kennedy
Set: Laura Fine Hawkes
Props: Jeff Rack
Costumes: Joe Kucharski
Lighting: Jef Ravitz & Paul Gentry
Sound design: Andy Garfield
Producers: Dean Schramm and Stuart Gordon
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Thursday, March 8, 2012
Re-Animator The Musical Makes its Return
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| Graham Skipper and Jesse Merlin in Re-Animator the Musical |
Last fall it played for six sold-out months to rave reviews, standing ovations, and an embarrassment of riches in the awards department. Now on its way to becoming the most-honored Los Angeles stage production of the year, Re-Animator The Musical re-opens at a new location for a limited ten-week engagement, prior to its performance dates in New York and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. If you didn't see it then, you must see it now! [Click Here for my previous review.]
In 1985, Stuart Gordon directed his first feature film and created a sensation. It was Re-Animator, based on a horror story by H.P. Lovecraft. The film delivered as many laughs as it did screams making it a cult classic among horror fans and winning a Critic’s Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Now, Gordon is back with his co-writers Dennis Paoli and William J. Norris and joined by composer/lyricist Mark Nutter turning Re-Animator into a musical for the stage.
Re-Animator The Musical tells the story of Herbert West, a brilliant young medical student who has created a glowing green serum that can bring the dead back to life. What should be a medical breakthrough results in hideous monstrosities and ghastly consequences. “I guess he just wasn’t fresh enough,” is West’s constant refrain as his quest for fresh subjects results in the murders of half the medical school’s faculty.
The original cast is back: George Wendt, best known as the affable Norm from Cheers is once again playing the Dean of the Medical School who West transforms into a mindless zombie. Chris L. McKenna, the star of Gordon’s neo-noir thriller King of the Ants is Dan Cain, Herbert’s hapless roommate who finds himself drawn into the mayhem. And operatic Jesse Merlin, who played the President of the United States in the long running The Beastly Bombing is Dr. Carl Hill who loses his head for Meg, the dean’s beautiful daughter, played by vivacious Rachel Avery of Big Love, only to actually lose it at the hands of Herbert West. Rounding out the cast are Mark Beltzman, Cynthia Carle, Brian Gillespie, Marlon Grace, Liesel Hanson, Richardson Jones and Graham Skipper as Herbert West.
Special effects are by the same team that created them for the 1985 movie: Tony Doublin, John Naulin and John Buechler with additional help from Tom Devlin and Greg McDougall. And the blood will flow so freely that the first few rows will once again be designated as a “splash zone.” Laura Fine Hawkes, who designed The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Taper, will provide the creepy sets, Joe Kucharski the moldering costumes and Jeff Ravitz coming straight from Bruce Springsteen’s new tour provides the cadaverous lighting. Stage managing the madness is the unflappable Joe Begos. Stuart Gordon will direct.
Re-Animator The Musical will play The Hayworth Theatre April 26 - July 8th before it begins its international tour. The theater is located at 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, 90057. Click Here for reservations or call (323) 960-4442. For more information about the musical visit www.ReAnimatorTheMusical.com.
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Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator Reinvents Itself as a Musical
Rachel Avery, George Wendt and Jesse Merlin
Photos by Thomas Hargis
Update: Due to popular demand, Re-Animator has extended through August 14, 2011. For tickets call 1-800-595-4849.
When Miguel Rodriguez and Beth Accomando heard there was going to be a splash zone at Re-Animator: The Musical, they knew they had to make the drive up from San Diego to be part of it. Dressed in bloody lab coats and an assortment of plastic bibs and aprons, they and their friends happily ended up front and center in the saran wrapped seats of the second row. They weren’t disappointed one bit.
The blood and guts flow freely in this campy musicalized version of Stuart Gordon’s horror film Re-Animator, directed for the stage by Gordon himself. It is a gore fest, complete with severed limbs, bloody heads, and yes, even squirting intestines. (Oh, beware the squirting intestines!) Die-hard Re-Animator fans will be pleased to note that special effects for the musical have been done by Tony Doublin, John Naulin and John Beuchler, the team who provided the gruesome effects for the film. It’s clear they've had a great time setting up the show for a live audience.
When it first came out in 1985 Re-Animator, quickly became a hit among horror fans and established a cult following both for the film and its mad scientist, Jeff Combs, who played Herbert West. Graham Skipper (pictured left), who plays West in the musical, is just as fiendish as his film counterpart, and every bit as funny.
Original music for the film was done by Richard Band and composer Mark Nutter takes Band’s original Re-Animator motif and uses it as the basis for the score. Many of the songs follow a stream of consciousness recitative style, and you probably won’t leave singing any familiar tunes, but that’s not the allure of this musical. Come for the horror, stay for the camp, and you’ll be happily satisfied.
The plot concerns West’s discovery of a fluorescent green serum that can re-animate the dead and his arrival at Miskatonic Medical School where he plans to continue his experiments. There he meets the amiable Dean Halsey (George Wendt), the dean’s lovely daughter Meg (Rachel Avery), her handsome boyfriend Dan Cain (Chris L. McKenna) and his soon-to-be nemesis, Dr. Carl Hill (Jesse Merlin).
The story follows the film pretty closely and horror aficionados will gleefully know what’s coming next, but I won’t spoil it for the horror neophytes in the audience. What I will say is that there is plenty of death, sex, horror, comedy, music, and yes, even dancing. It is a musical, after all.
Chris L. McKenna, Rachel Avery, Jesse Merlin
and George Wendt
George Wendt, best known as Norm on Cheers is the show’s headliner, and he goes for it, game on, all the way through. Whether he’s being thrown around the stage by a zombie or beating his head up against an imaginary wall, Wendt gets the laugh, and we love him for it. Cain and Avery provide the sex and a dose of sweetness amid the craziness happening all around them, and Merlin’s pompous Dr. Hill is full of the cocky assurance of a man who doesn’t know he’s wearing a really bad toupee. When he tangles – and tangos – with Herbert West, we know we’re in for some madcap fun.
I didn’t see the film when it originally came out, but did watch it recently to get a better feel for the genre. What I found most interesting was the treatment of the material depending on which medium I was watching. In the film, the actors play the scenes realistically making the horror aspect really quite horrifying. Humor came as a relief to the psychologically gruesome situations.
The action is heightened in the musical with heavy emphasis on the comedy and interactive onstage gore. The Second City/SNL feel of the scenes is fantastic on the Steve Allen Theater’s intimate stage. In fact, the set consists of only one doorway that becomes the entrance to all of the locations in the musical. Great use of the space by set designer Laura Fine Hawkins, who last designed the set for The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Taper. She proves it’s not how big the space is, but what you do with it that counts.
Get your tickets now, however, because online horror film fan sites have been singing Re-Animator’s praises since the show went into previews, and the musical is already developing its own cult following. Sunday night’s performance was standing room only with audience members lining the aisle.
So what did the San Diego foursome think when I saw them later in the evening? “It was great!” said Accomando, and the enthusiastic, bloodstained smiles of her friends confirmed it. They did sit in the splash zone after all…
Performances of Re-Animator - The Musical run Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 8:00 pm through March 27 at the Steve Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027. For tickets call 1-800-595-4849 or go to http://www.steveallentheater.com/.
Book: Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon and William J. Norris
Music & lyrics: Mark Nutter
Adapted from the story by H.P. Lovecraft
Based on the film H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator produced by Brian Yuzna
Director Stuart Gordon
Musical director: Peter Adams
Choreography: Cynthia Carle
Producers: Dean Schramm and Stuart Gordon
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