Customer Reviews

Evil Dead: The Musical (2006 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The cast recording of "Evil Dead-The Musical" is daffy, outrageous,giddy, offbeat and off-the wall, cheerfully profane and as much fun as a barrel of Candarian Demons. The songs will never be classics but they are surprisingly tuneful and bouncy even while limbs are being dismembered and heads rolling. Picking a favorite is hard since there are no clunkers but the show starts with "Cabin in the Woods" where the five friends are heading for Spring Break and they drive across stage holding a cardboard cutout of a car and drive like the Flintstones with their feet. Ash and his sweetie Linda sing of how they fell in love on aisle three of S-Mart where he is a "Housewares Employee" and she a check-out cashier.
Another delight is "Join Us" sung by the 'deadites' and a moosehead(don't ask).
One of the girls sings a ditty called "All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons" And the number is performed in the style of a fifties doo-wop.

Late in the show when the demons decide to team up to kill Ash they first must stop to sing and dance "Do the Necronomicon" which is a "borrow" from "Rocky Horror" but it's acknowleged during the number with the lyrics "it's like the "Time Warp"--only better."

After listening to this delightful cast album i am puzzled why it only had a two month run in New York-or maybe the problem was the fact that copious amounts of stage blood was used and sprayed even into the audience(management provided plastic ponchos to those in the first few rows). Hopefully local theatre companies across the country will mount productions.

This CD I highly recommend but be warned the language is pretty rough in spots but remember my first remarks-"It's cheerfully profane"

Brilliance. Pure brilliance. Combine a tried-and-true cult smash with great song writing, catchy tunes and a more-than-capable cast and this is what you get. If you love the movies, you *will* enjoy this CD. How could you not love an album with song titles like "Ode To An Accidental Stabbing"?!???

I was fortunate enough to catch the musical at it's second-to-last showing in NYC. This recording is around 75-90% of the musical - basically all of it except the purely-visual parts and maybe some connecting dialogue. In other words, liquid gold. The songs, famous lines and overtures like "Die, die!"

(Track 14: "I'm Not A Killer." Picture Ash sawing through a head while singing the lines with blood gratuitously spurting up at his face.)

I can't pick a favorite song because there are just too many! It's probably not quite as good if you don't have the visuals to go along with it (haven't seen the musical), but I bet you'll still get a kick out of the album, all the same.

You may know the plot, but until you heard/saw the musical, I bet you never laughed at a Candarian demon moose or someone threatening bodily dismemberment in extremely colorful language! Okay, well, maybe the second one but definitely not the first, I'd bet hard cash on that. You'll laugh and then you'll laugh some more. Unless/until the musical is running again, this is as good as it gets. Enjoy it. And if you don't, you must be a Candarian demon.

Imagine all the fun
If to evil you succumb
So just lay down that big gun

And join our dark army of evil Candarian demons!

This recording, I'm sure, doesn't fully capture the magic of the show, but it's a good start. I haven't had the luck to see a production, but I'd love to. The lyrics are wonderful and the music is playful and fitting.

The songs I find myself listening to more than the others are:

--Cabin in the Woods
--Evil Tree (there's no actual singing, but the line "Now, mother always said that when you hear a strange, frightening, and potentially life threatening ghostly chant coming from the darks woods, that there's only one thing that you should do: Not wake the others and go investigate it alone" gets me laughing every time)
--Look Who's Evil Now
--What the F*** Was That?
--Join Us
--Evil Puns ("It'll be like you were killed by some guy who's first named happens to be Don. And you'll be dead by Don.") LMAO!
--Bit Part Demon
--All The Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons (I love the title)
--Ode to An Accidental Stabbing
--Do the Necronomicon
--We Will Never Die (this one always gives me goosebumps)

Of course, because of the language and such, this is recommended to those over the age of 17. I recommend this to those who have a wonderfully sick sense of humor, like me. XD

I bought the CD after reading a surprising good review of the stage show in the NY Times. How could this be? I was intrigued.

I love musicals, I love horror flicks, and camp is a good thing.

I bought the CD knowing nothing about the movies, and hoped for the best. The Times didn't steer me wrong.

"Cabin in the Woods". WOW. A bouncy little tune by the typical oversexed teens unaware of their collective fates. I am a musical theatre purist, but please, understand time and place. The show is parody, so it is the time and place for complete absurdity and irony. "We're five college students on our way to an old abandoned cabin in the woods."

"What the F*** was That?". Seriously, you never see this kind of song onstage, and it fits the action. try to catch the clip of it on YouTube.

So many of these songs are very funny, along with the lead-in dialogue they included. the only songs I think are below-par are "Reliable Jake" and the "Necronomicon", but on the whole it's a great CD.

I've since caught parts II and III of the movie series, and they are as campy-bad as anyone could want. The CD is a great homage to the demonic spirit of the movies, and it's a great listen.

Some musical theatre purists might turn up their noses at "clever" lyrics and puns and the simplicity of the score, but I think it's great. What's wrong with enjoyable and populist theatre? For the last year or so, this CD been in heavy rotation alongside Avenue Q, Urinetown, Sondheim, Rent, and many other "traditional" Broadway soundtracks.

Evil Dead the Musical is something that every fan should buy, because if you love the movies, then you will love this musical. The songs have a wide range of emotion, mainly comedy, but some songs that are supposed to be funny (such as "Housewares Employee") are actually beautiful in its own way. The music is also a wide range of Rock genres, from DooWop to even having metal riffs. It has that Rocky Horror/Little Shop of Horrors feel, but totally stands alone and holds its own when it comes to sustenance.

This is definitely a parental advisory album, but that never stops it from being what it is, awesome. I was really impressed by the vocal talent that really adds to the songs. If the singing is bad, the songs would fail as well. Ryan Ward, who plays Ash in the musical and on this record, goes above and beyond what I expecting from an Off Broadway play. This guy can sing, and to make it even better, he does a great Bruce Campbell impersonation! He doesn't sound 100% like Bruce all of the time, but he definitely has the Bruce screams down for sure.

There is some dialogue in between some songs and it does help illustrate the story a little bit; and the album comes with a short "Act 1" "Act 2" description of the play, but if you have never seen the movies-I think the story would be hard to follow. There aren't really enough descriptions used for those who don't know the story really well. Like I said, it gives some back ground info to the story in form of the dialogue and the mini-book that comes with the album, but clueless people could still get confused not having seen the visuals.

So, with all of that said, I think that this album is a must if you are a fan of the movies. If you have never seen any of the movies except for Army of Darkness on TV, I highly recommend that you watch the first two (at least the second movie) before listening to the album. That way you can understand the jokes better and just get more out of the CD. If nothing else, watch the movies because they are awesome!

This musical is one of the most original and interesting concepts to come out of contemporary musical theatre. Its music is versatile, technically demanding and endlessly entertaining. It is a wonderful tip of the hat to the Sam Raimi cult film of 1981, funny and obscure managing to communicate the revered B-Grade horror of the 80's to show-tunes. A wonderful purchase for both musical theatre fans and Evil Dead loyalists.

A great recording of a fun show. Don't look for earth shattering lyrics, or unique music. Do look for a fun time - and be sure to read along with the booklet in the jewel case if you are an Evil Dead the Musical newbie. Don't listen with young children in the vacinity.

EVIL DEAD; THE MUSICAL was one of the best shows of the 2006-7 theater season in New York. The cast album is sensational. I keep playing it over and over.

I've been listening to this CD for a couple days. To start off, I am NOT a broadway musical lover. Manlaw. But, this CD is pretty cool. And, who wouldn't love songs about the Evil Dead series with some crunching guitar thrown in for kicks. This is not a CD you can play for just anyone -- and you should never play it around the kids due to the language content. See the Track Listing to see what I mean.

Funny. Irreverant. Filled with lines from the actual movies. Groovy.

Your geeky friends will be humming these tunes in the cubicle next to you.

It makes you want to head right out and buy a cart full of Old Spice from your local S-mart. Shop smart. Shop S-mart. And, add this CD to your collection. It's top of the line, baby.

If I were rating the actual show that I've watched at my local theatre, then I would absolutely give this 5 stars.

But, rating just the CD, I have to give it fewer stars. The songs are catchy as hell; there isn't a single song on this CD that doesn't make me want to boogie (except maybe for "It Won't Let Us Leave"). The tracks with just the dialogue I could live without, but I can see how some people enjoy those, and there are not that many of them.

The lyrics, however, are awkwardly crammed into the songs. There's just enough similarity between rhyming words that the song can continue the flow, but the words are just different enough that the flow is not that smooth. Some words are sung very quickly in a sort of weird syncopation in order to get the necessary words within a measure. I love the songs, but I have no delusion that the lyrics are perfect for the music.

One friend of mine had no interest in seeing the show after listening to this soundtrack. If I had listened to the soundtrack first, I would have understood why (though I still would have gone to the show). I feel that the soundtrack is way more enjoyable having the stage production stuck in my mind's eye. I saw this show twice with the same set and actors, so I have a pretty vivid memory of what happens during each of the songs, and that just enhances my enjoyment of the songs.

If you haven't seen the show, will you enjoy this CD? It's probable. I suggest you listen to the samples and see if they do anything for you. If the samples don't get you going, then the CD probably won't either. If you have seen a good production of Evil Dead, then this CD is absolutely for you. Though the songs may be on the weak side, your memory of the show should make it more enjoyable. I don't know what it'd be like to see a bad production of this, but if that's all you've had, then that might make this CD worse for you. I'm just wildly speculating at that point, but it seems reasonable.

So, not the greatest lyrics and not the most innovative music, but it's a rocking good time regardless.