Get ready for an evening full of gore and laughter. The musical that seamlessly blends horror and comedy will soon take the Collingwood Arts Center stage.
Stone Productions and The Collingwood Arts Center present Evil Dead The Musical. The original dates were Thursday, Oct. 17 through Saturday, Oct. 19, and have been moved to Thursday, Nov. 7 through Saturday, Nov. 9.
The comedic horror musical follows Ash Williams and his friends on a spring break vacation in a cabin in the woods where they unleash evil demonic forces that Ash must battle to survive.
The musical is co-directed by Jon Kuhlman and Amanda Opdyke. The two worked together on Evil Dead two years prior, when Kuhlman starred as Ash. The pair joined efforts again to co-direct this year’s production of Evil Dead The Musical.
Kuhlman has been a huge fan of the cult classic franchise for over 30 years and was excited to return to the production as a director, bringing Opdyke on with him as co-director.
“Just finding out that a musical of my favorite horror movie existed was that, in itself, was amazing,” Kuhlman said. “And then the chance to perform it, and then now the chance to direct it.”
“I knew we could just bring an awesome team to make this experience, this musical bigger, better, badder, bloodier than the last time,” Opdyke added. “And that’s been our theme.”
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Brad King stars as Ash, the lead protagonist in Evil Dead The Musical. King brings a wealth of experience leading productions to his role as Ash. Prior to Evil Dead, King has had the opportunity to play various other lead roles in productions, including Bill Sykes in Oliver, both Brad and Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror, Cliff Bradshaw in Cabaret and Harold Hill in Music Man.
“It’s really nice to be in a production that takes so much, whether it’s the actual performers or the directing team, the music direction, or the crew that works behind the scenes, it really brings a lot of people with a lot of different talents and skills together to pull something off,” King said. “And even though it’s a lot of work leading up to it, it’s a pretty magical feeling to finally get to the performance state and have an audience and have that audience reaction.”
The musical also features the co-choreography of Courtney Austin and Toledo City Paper Editor Riley Runnells. The two worked as a team to choreograph the show, bringing to life its dark humor through the use of movement, innuendos and comedic timing, using the iconic cult classic movie as inspiration.
“It’s more just a lot of research about the backstory of the show, and a lot of (the musical) is goofy and campy, so it’s a lot of fun. Nothing has to be perfect,” Austin said. “(The musical) really took on the funny nature of the movie. Obviously it was supposed to be a horror movie, but it really took on the fact that it was just overly gory and funny.”
The production also highly relies on special effects to move the storyline, including the particular gory scene where Ash’s hand is replaced with a chainsaw.
Audience members will even get sprayed with blood in the iconic, fan-favorite “splash zone.”
“We’re spraying the audience with pink blood from everywhere we can think of. There are people who will wear all the white to this to see how much they can get.” Kuhlman said.
Audience members can even upgrade their ticket to a “guaranteed splash zone” seat.
Creating the special effects that are a part of the beloved cult classic musical was a team effort. A friend of co-director Kuhlman, Mary Gainer of Todeleedoo Puppet Review, worked to create the props and special effects used throughout the musical.
“It’s just a wonderful collaboration, and everybody involved is the best possible person for that role,” Kuhlman said.
Tickets are now sold out for Stone Productions’ Evil Dead The Musical.
The cast and crew are working around the clock to make this musical everything that fans are expecting and more.
“Have a bloody good time,” Opdyke said.
For more information on Stone Productions’ Evil Dead The Musical, visit onthestage.tickets/show/collingwood-arts-center/6605b292bb48181ecf547f3b.
