If the news that director Sam Raimi is developing a fourth installment in his Evil Dead horror/comedy series isn’t enough to excite you, how about the idea that the stage version of the franchise, Evil Dead: The Musical, may be heading to the big screen as well? And in move to replicate the stage show’s infamous “Splatter Zone,” the film may be coming at you in 3D!

What else can I say, but “Groovy!”

Producer Don Carmody, who co-produced the six-time Oscar winner musical-to-film adaptation Chicago, is currently in negotiations to with Raimi to bring the show to the big screen with the production’s original director Christopher Bond and choreographer Hinton Battle as co-directors.

Evil Dead: The Musical premiered in Toronto in 2004 at the Just For Laughs festival and had a five month run off-Broadway. The show has been successfully remounted in Toronto as well as has gone up in various other cities around the world, including Korea. Replicating the movies’ famous excessive use of fake blood, the show splashes gallons of the fake red stuff around the stage and into the first few rows of the audience, aka “The Splatter Zone.”

As a fan of the Evil Dead films, I managed to see the musical twice during its New York run – opening night of previews and the night before it closed – sitting in the Splatter Zone both times. The show is a blast and if it had run longer, I would have gone again. According to reports, Carmody states that he is looking to use much of the show’s original cast as possible, although it doesn’t state if that would be the Toronto or off-Broadway cast. Either way, that would still put Ryan Ward in the role of Ash, which is a very good thing. Hopefully they’ll bring back Jenna Coker from the New York cast as Ash’s sister Cheryl.

Via Screen Daily.

OK, I’ll admit that this is only movie based is the loosest possible terms, but I’m running with it anyway.

One of the best live theater experiences I’ve had in the past several years was seeing Evil Dead: The Musical twice during its 2006-2007 off-Broadway run at the New World Stages. Taking the best of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy and tossing it into a blender with some great tunes, the musical is a frothy milkshake of fun that leaves the stage and those in the first two rows covered in fake blood. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the promo video for the currently running production in Toronto over on the show’s website. Since its premier run in 2004 at the Toronto Just For Laughs Festival, the show has gained legions of fans and has even had a sell out run in Korea!

The folks behind the current Toronto production certainly seem to be having fun. Not only has the show had its run extended into June, but they have recently put out a series of posters spoofing recent, well known Broadway show advertisements.

Enjoy.

Via SlashFilm via Gawker via AdWeek.

I don’t know what surprises me more- That there is a South Korean production of Evil Dead: The Musical playing nightly to sold out audiences or that those audiences are made up of 90% women.

It turns out that the South Koreans love Western musicals and according to a recent article from Variety Asia, Evil Dead: The Musical is currently one of the hottest tickets in Seoul. Of course, there was a little bit of tinkering down to the show in the process of translating it from a raucous, campy splatfest to what Korean audiences are seeing.

Han Saem Song is the independent Korean producer who ounted Evil Dead: The Musical.

He cleverly took the collegiate humor and broadly comic casting of the original and replaced it with a hot young Korean cast who sing and dance far better than their North American counterparts. At times, it looks perilously close to High School Musical, but Song knew what he was doing.

“In Korea, 70% of the audience for most musicals are women,” he explains. “But we go even further. Evil Dead has 90% women most nights, sometimes more.”

Having seen the show twice myself during its Manhattan off-Broadway run, I can only scratch my head at how these changes must look to English-speaking fans of the show.

Meanwhile, both German and Japanese producers are currently bidding on the rights to bring Evil Dead: The Musical to their countries while the show has recently taken to the boards for a fifth time in Toronto since it first premiered in 2003. The new Toronto production, which recently extended its run into the summer, once again stars Ryan Ward as Ash, the role that launched Bruce Campbell to stardom in the original Evil Dead films.

Now, if someone could just confirm those rumors of a film adaptation of the musical…

Back during Hollywood’s Golden Age, studios regularly raided the boards of Broadway for source material for their films. However, with the recent success Mel Brooks had in bringing his hit 1968 comedy The Producers to the Great White Way, the flow has seemingly reversed and Broadway producers are mining recognizable Hollywood hits for stage adaptations. A walk through midtown Manhattan’s theatre district will reveal marquees for numerous stage versions of well known films- Spamalot (an adaptation of Monty Python And The Holy Grail), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Color Purple, The Wedding Singer, Disney’s Tarzan and The Lion King as well as the upcoming High Fidelity and Secondhand Lions.

This week a new and rather unusual movie inspired show opened to preview audiences at off-Broadway’s New World Stages- Evil Dead: The Musical. An hysterical romp where a spring vacation trip to a spooky cabin in the woods turns into a nightmare of demon possession, dismemberment and snappy dance numbers, Evil Dead: The Musical manages the seemingly impossible- transforming a stylized horror comedy into a rollicking musical comedy that manages to stay faithful to its highly different the source material.

Originally mounted in Toronto in 2003 and then at the 2004 Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, the play skillfully combines plot elements from the first two of director Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films as well as incorporates a few elements from the franchise’s third installment Army Of Darkness (1992). While the first Evil Dead (1981) film was played fairly straight, the second installment definitely amped the comedy elements, resulting in a splatter film as made by the Three Stooges. The stage play’s script steers towards the more comedic interpretation and is smart enough to knowingly wink at the audience over any lapses of story logic. The show’s book also fleshes out the movies’ characters a bit before making them gist for the Grand Guignol mill.

The opening night performance encountered a few minor technical snafus, but the cast braved through them. Truth be told, some technical flubs could easily be interpreted as the stage equivalent of the film series’ sometimes clunky, low-budget effects, so any unexpected mechanical effect failure could conceivably fit right in with the spirit of the piece.

The cast acquitted themselves nicely, with a few adroitly handling double rolls. Ryan Ward, the show’s only holdover from its Toronto run, is tasked with unenviable job of stepping into the shoes of a character that Bruce Campbell has made a film icon. Ward manages to play Ash in a way that evokes Campbell but never allows things to devolve into a bad Campbell impression. Also of special note is Jenna Coker, who, as Ash’s younger sister Cheryl, is transformed into a foul-mouthed, pun spewing demon. Coker throws herself into her performance with an energetic physicality that amazes.

There were plenty of fans of the Evil Dead films at the show’s opening preview night audience. (One guy, right, even showed up dressed as Campbell’s Ash.) Alternately cheering or shouting along with some of the series’ more iconic lines of dialogue, they gave the performance an almost Rocky Horror Picture Show-like atmosphere. The cast at times seemed surprised by the crowd’s enthusiasm; no more so than during the curtain call when they received a standing ovation.

And then there’s the “splatter zone”.

Those familiar with the Evil Dead films know that Raimi was fond of splashing the fake blood around and the stage version takes equal glee in splashing the red stuff around. The theatre is warning patrons that the first three rows from the stage have been designated the “Splatter Zone” and to dress accordingly. If you can’t figure out why, you may to seriously thing about sitting further back. I have to admit that the splatter effects that were supposed to splash the audience were a little anemic on opening night. I was sitting directly in the second row in front of the cellar trap door and barely got a few drops on me. Fortunately, while chatting with some of the actors afterwards, I was assured that they were still trying to find the right amount of blood to pump and that things would be messier in future performances.

Evil Dead: The Musical will run through previews for the rest of October before beginning its open-ended run on November 1. If you’re anywhere within sane traveling distance of New York City, you need to see this show as soon as possible. If you’re live an insane traveling distance of New York City, do something crazy and come to Manhattan to see this show.

There has been some talk of Raimi producing a remake of the original Evil Dead film, allowing some new young director to bring his vision to the story. I would say that a new vision has already been brought to the Evil Dead franchise and its playing out every night at a theater on New York City’s 50th street.