Review: Evil Dead: The Musical at Salvage Vanguard Theatre

In Gallagher's case, the answer is "not bad." The script does the heavy lifting, yanking Ash's best lines from across all three films, in order to give the audience what they paid for. And Gallagher—who possesses a fine, Campbell-like chin—is really quite good during the parts of the performance that don't involve those lines. He's likable, as Ash is supposed to be, and suitably cool. He just seems a little overwhelmed by the enormity of delivering legendary lines like, "Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun," and "This is my boomstick," seemingly aware that he could lose the whole audience if his delivery of the word "Groovy" falls flat.

The performance is delighted to be straight kitsch, a Rocky Horror sort of event, and so there's not much point in talking about where it succeeds or fails in capturing the spirit of the series on which it's based. It doesn't, for the most part, but the musical numbers kind of render that irrelevant. Fans going in expecting a whole bunch of tree rape are likely to be left wanting, but that's cool—this is a musical tribute, not a true adaptation.

As a musical tribute, it's pretty good, too. The songs are catchy and fun, with a recurring "Look Who's Evil Now!" motif tying things together, and standouts like "What the Fuck Was That" and "All The Men In My Life Have Been Killed By Candarian Demons" bringing some real fun to the performance. (Some of the minor character songs, like "Good Old Reliable Jake" and "Bit-Part Demon", don't work nearly as well.) McKelvey, accustomed to the Austin stage, knows what he likes in a musical, and he's in full-cheese mode here.

Which gets a little grating at times. An early moment in which Ash's sister Cheryl (the outstanding Corley Pillsbury) announces that she's going to read a book sees her unpack and strut across stage displaying a copy of Campbell's autobiography If Chins Could Kill. A later moment winks similarly at the audience when Maggie Wilhite, terrific as Annie, rants about watching Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi's Spider-Man as an in-flight movie, and how poorly directed it was. Rather than make the audience feel like we're in on the joke, eye-rollers like these come off as trying too hard to show that they're aware of the source material. Dudes, we all know about Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi—that's why we showed up.

One area in which the performance may not have been trying hard enough, though, is the technical side—particularly the sound. While it's hard to really get after Evil Dead, of all things, for having low production values, the sound was off pretty severely on opening weekend. The audience endured loud feedback, missed sound cues, and general audio failures throughout the entire play, casting less of a "low budget" pall over the thing and more of a "they didn't practice this shit" effect.

But it's likely that, for most audiences, none of that's relevant. Does Ash strap a chainsaw to his hand? Yep. Do giant trees run around attacking people? They sure do. Will you get to hear the word "boomstick" at least twice? You'll be pleased to hear that you will. When considering whether an Evil Dead musical worked or not, those questions may be the most relevant ones.