THE EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL To Invade Cumberland Theatre This Month

The Cumberland Theatre will continue its 35th Anniversary Season with Evil Dead the Musical, a stage parody of the horror movie franchise of the same name. The show will run October 12th - 29th with Thursday - Saturday performances at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm.

While the Evil Dead films are the definition of cult movies, as a stage show, Evil Dead The Musical has become a cult sensation of its own. The show played Off-Broadway in New York, has broken records in Toronto, has won awards in Korea, launched three North American tours, and has had over 500 productions mounted across the globe.

The musical takes all the elements of the cult classic films, The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness and combines them for a crazy, funny, and bloody theatrical experience. Five college students go to an abandoned cabin in the woods, and accidentally unleash an evil force that turns them all into demons. It's all up to Ash (a housewares employee, turned demon-killing hero), and his trusty chainsaw to save the day. Blood flies. Limbs are dismembered. Demons tell bad jokes... and all to music.

The songs in the show are completely off the wall as well with titles like "All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons" and "What the F**k was That?" The show also includes a "Splash Zone" - a section of the audience that gets covered in fake blood.

The show features many new faces to the Cumberland Theatre as well as a few local veteran performers. Making his CT debut as Ash will be Donovan McDonald. From Philadelphia, McDonald graduated with a Musical Theater BA from Temple University (2019) with credits such as: SpongeBob in The SpongeBob Musical, Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, Prof. Plum in Clue! On Stage, and Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream. Also appearing at CT for the first time will be Aimee Lyn Meunier (Cheryl), Skye Lindberg (Linda), Tyler Egesdal (Scotty) and Jacob Miller (Jake). Meunier hails from Connecticut and has a degree in musical
theatre for Rhode Island College. She has recently finished James and the Giant Peach as Ladybug and has just returned from Hawaii where she performed Into the Woods as Lucinda and Little Red U/S. Lindberg currently resides in New York City. She spent the past year touring with The National Theatre for Children, performing plays about energy conservation for students all over North Carolina and Florida. Egesdal is based in Northern Illinois and studied musical theatre at AMDA in New York. Recent credits include Player in Pippin, Ensemble in Bliss Street and Ted Teryl in House Of Eerie Figures. Miller is a local actor currently pursuing a degree in musical education at Frostburg State University. Recent credits include Sydney Chaplin in Chaplin: The Musical, and Bobby Leach in Niagara: The Musical. The cast also includes local actors Savannah Tagliaferro (Annie), Emily Snyder (Shelly) and Brian Records (Ed). Tagliaferro was last seen on the CT stage as Jovie in Elf the Musical. She has also appeared in Night of the Living Dead Live, Closer and Carrie the Musical. Snyder has been seen in The Prom, The Outsiders, Company and The Wisdom of Eve. Records recently appeared as Kendrick in A Few Good Men. Other CT credits include The Prom, Escape to Margaritaville and The Taming of the Shrew. Rounding out the cast, playing a variety of roles are Timothy Bambara, Grace LaCount, Caleb Friend and Ava Breighner.

The show is under the direction of Kimberli Rowley with music direction by Kelly Schrecengost, choreography by Kiersten Gasemy and stage management by Jennifer Mathie. The creative team consists of Darrell Rushton (fight director), Rhett Wolford (set/sound design), Ken Phillips (lighting design), Sarah Constable (costume design) and Briand Records (assistant stage manager/fight captain).

Performances are Thursday - Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm. There will be a
complimentary opening night reception following the performance on Friday, October 13th. A Halloween wine tasting is scheduled for October 20th at 5:30 pm for an additional ticket charge. There will be 20 splash zone seats available for each performance. These seats include a swag bag, drink tickets and more.

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