Sure, you got your fill of Tim’s Picks this morning. But wait, there’s more!
A Tim’s Picks bonus cut: Civic’s ‘Evil Dead: The Musical’
By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette
A wise man once sang, “If you want blood, you’ve got it!”
If only Bon Scott, AC/DC’s first singer, were alive to see “Evil Dead: The Musical,” a comedic take on the classic “Evil Dead” films. The show features characters from the first movie, dancing “deadites” (demon zombies) and buckets upon buckets of fake blood that get sprayed onto the actors and into the audience. It’s like a Gwar show for musical theater fans.
Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette will present “Evil Dead” for the first time with the opening show slated for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22. The show continues 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23 and 24, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29-31, and a special midnight show on Halloween. Tickets are $23.50-$31.50.
Director Tom Robson assured that the “blood” washes out and only certain sections — A and C — will get the spray. So, what’s a little blood spatter during the Halloween season?
“It is designed to be washed. The first person we tried it on was me. I have been sprayed with it so many times, and it has always come out of the laundry,” Robson assured. “It’s not going to hurt you. It shouldn’t be staining anything. And we think it’s really fun. It’s been part of the tradition of the show for 20 years.”
“Evil Dead” stars a young cast from late teens to early 30s. The songs like “Do the Necronomicon” and “What the F**k Was That?” are performed by a three-piece band as arranged by music director Josh DeJarlais.
Craig Campbell designed an eerie set that gives a foreboding atmosphere and places to put those pesky deadites.
‘Shop smart’
Like the1981 movie starring Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi, “Evil Dead” centers around a small group of college students ready to spend spring break roughing it at an old, rundown, seemingly abandoned cabin deep in the Michigan woods. Ash (played by Owen Taylor) was granted precious PTO from S-Mart (“Shop smart. Shop S-Mart!”) to take his girlfriend and coworker, Linda (Carly Smith), his sister Cheryl (Parker Smith), his best friend Scott (Liam Kelley) and Scott’s ditzy date Shelley (Alex Camille Bien) on a week-long vacation. In the dusty, dilapidated “Cabin in the Woods,” the young people find a recording from a Professor Raymond Knowby explaining the discovery and contents of “The Necronomicon” — the book of the dead.
A few incantations later, all hell breaks loose, literally. Strange voices are heard; companions become Kandarian demons; a hand gets severed and said severed hand moves on its own accord. It’s up to Ash to save the day with his “12-gauge, double-barreled Remington” featuring “a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger, retailing for $109.95” — or “boomstick” for the uninitiated.
Taylor said he wanted to take elements from the movies but also his own ideas while portraying the famed horror movie hero, who also starred in the recent “Ash Vs. The Evil Dead” series, which aired on Starz for three seasons.
“I didn’t know how crazy of a show this was,” Taylor said. “But after fully listening to it, seeing that Tom was going to be directing it, I knew like, ‘Oh, I have to get on board with this’. Because, honestly, Tom is such an amazing director. I love working with him.
“My Ash pulls a little bit from Bruce Campbell and some of my own into it to create this sort of special Ash that can be goofy and silly, but also can be serious at times where, you know, he has to kill some demons.”
While the show has its silly takes on horror movie tropes, “Evil Dead” is heavy on singing and dancing. Choreographer Chloe Groce worked diligently with the cast, so much that you would think a “Thiller” video shoot was breaking out. Both Taylor and Smith are accomplished singers: Taylor worked with a vocal coach before rehearsals and Smith has a background in concert choir singing.
“Lots of Beethoven and Bach,” she laughed. “It’s very fun to get out of my element with doing this rock musical. I knew it was something I wanted to try for.”
Robson acknowledged that the songs are a challenge, but his cast have risen to the occasion.
“It’s a hard show to sing,” Robson said. “Singing rock musicals is hard. And so, the fact that we had performers who were in the right age range and had talent and could do that without injuring their voices was to me a big factor.”
Media push
Taylor, Smith and DeJarlais appeared on the “Fox 59 Morning News” in Indianapolis for a segment on Tuesday, Oct. 20. The performers sang a cut of “Housewares Employee” with DeJarlais on keys. Such an appearance on Indianapolis television is rare for Civic, perhaps proving that offbeat — and sometimes bloody — shows like “Evil Dead” are welcome, during Halloween or any time of year. Robson, who made his Civic directorial debut with 2025’s “Urinetown,” is thrilled to have somewhat underground, envelope-pushing shows on the main stage.
“I have so much appreciation for Raquel Lopez as (Civic’s) producing artistic director. She is willing to take a risk on something like this because we know it’s not everybody’s cup of blood, if you will,” Robson said. “It’s not necessarily what you expect from a community theater in mid-size town, Indiana. … But I firmly believe that the way theater thrives is by looking for new audiences, and by particularly trying to reach out and connect with people who are younger than me. I want theater that can excite folks who maybe don’t always want to go to the theater, because that’s how we get them to come back.”
Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes here (almost) weekly, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.
For more Tim’s Picks
Here are five other ideas for your weekend, with cameos by the Feast of the Hunters’ Moon, Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, Monster Mash on the Wabash, Purdue Dance and Lafayette Master Chorale. All in this week’s Tim’s Picks:
Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.