Interview: George Reinblatt of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL at Randolph Theatre

The co-creator of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL is promising audiences a bloody good time. Coming back to Toronto for the 10th time since its premiere in 2003, the hometown show, famous for its irreverent attitude, campy props, and oodles of stage gore that covers audience members in the “splatter zone,” has inspired productions across the globe. The show has already extended through December, with an extra show added at 10:30pm on Halloween for diehard fans. BroadwayWorld spoke to co-creator George Reinblatt about the show’s 20-year trajectory, translating its local references for European and Asian audiences, and how the horror-comedy is really more comedy than horror, despite all that blood.

BWW: What inspired EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL? Why did you choose this particular franchise?

REINBLATT: At first, my partner, the director Chris Bond, and I were figuring out whether there was any IP that we could turn to a musical, specifically what would be the craziest thing to turn to a musical. And we landed on Evil Dead 1 and 2. Originally, it was kind of like a goof, like, oh, we're choosing this crazy movie, but then, amazingly, the structure of those movies actually lent themselves perfectly towards becoming a musical. So many unique things happen, and you can turn each one into a song. It actually laid itself out structurally better than a lot of movies. So while it was a fluke that we landed on it, it turned out great for our purposes.

BWW: Speaking of the structure of the films and how they felt natural to musicalize, do you think that there are common elements between horror and musical theatre that unite the two forms?

REINBLATT: Well, the one thing with this show is it's not horror. It is not scary at all. It is a musical comedy based on a horror genre, is the best way to describe it. The Evil Dead franchise is very hard to explain to people who haven't seen it because there are true horror films and then there are wacky comedies, and this really leans more towards the comedy side. So in terms of having fun with horror and making cheesy, crazy effects, which is kind of what Evil Dead's known for, it does lend itself to the stage. It's the campiness of it that makes it perfect.

BWW: Despite the fact that it's campy and it's funny, many reviewers have said that what sets the show apart is that it's not fully ironic, it's also really earnest in what it's doing. There's a trend with a lot of new musicals to act embarrassed about their own form and to make fun of it in an ironic way. How do you balance humour and earnestness?

REINBLATT: It is always a fine line. We've put on this show so many times now, but we often have a whole new cast and a few new crew members. Something we have to explain to all of them is that we take this very seriously. Throughout the whole thing, the characters take themselves very seriously. They're very scared. To them, the deaths are real. But, at the same time, they're in this wacky situation with silly props. A moose head comes to life on the wall. It's stilly, but they have to react like it's normal, and like it's terrifying. A lot of the comedy comes from how seriously it's taken. If you didn't take it seriously, you'd be one step removed from it, but instead you get really invested, even though it's still wacky at the end of the day.

BWW: So it's about creating a self-contained universe with consistent internal logic, even if it's strange or unrealistic by our standards.

REINBLATT: Yeah, these people are taking themselves very seriously in an unrealistic universe. I'd say that. They're living it. They're in the middle of it all. The show is at its strongest and funniest when the performers are treating this as seriously as they can. It's a very strange balance, but I think we figured it out how to hit it perfectly after all these years.

BWW: EVIL DEAD has clearly been a successful show. You've had hundreds of productions in many different countries. What has it been like to see the show grow as a phenomenon for 20 years?

REINBLATT: It has blown my mind. We started this show as just a bunch of friends putting it on for free in the back room of a little bar in Toronto, the Tranzac Club, where we're having our cast party for this production 20 years later. It was going to last seven performances and somehow it's now had 500 productions around the world. It's currently in Sweden and Korea this year, and it's blowing my mind. The whole thing is beyond what I could have ever expected, for a show to start this small and grow so much. It just kept slowly growing.

This is based on a cult movie and it is a cult musical. And the show itself has followed that kind of cult status in the same way that the Evil Dead movies did. Even though the movies didn't necessarily start out successful, they grew over time and over the years they became more and more popular. This musical is doing the same, because we're probably in more cities this year than we've ever been.

Certain cities have really taken to it, like San Diego. This year is their 11th year, I believe, and still sold out every night. Toronto, of course, has always loved this, and Seoul has done five productions with a bunch of K-pop stars. It's gone to levels I can't fathom and it has these little pockets of where it's really blown up and become its own cult.

BWW: Do you have any favorite memories or productions?

REINBLATT: There are so many. I've gotten to go to Madrid to see it. I've gotten to go to Seoul. I've gotten to go to many cities around North America. I'm from Toronto, so I just love it being in Toronto. It means so much to me that it's here, and this is our 10th production here. There's been just a lot of fun because at the end of the day, this is a fun show. You'll never have more fun at the theatre.

There's a lot of theatre that's not fun. It makes you sad. This is the complete opposite. This will just make you happy. And that's what I try to tell people, even though the title sounds like a horror film, this show is not scary at all. It's just fun start to finish. If you love the Evil Dead movies, you're going to love this show. If you've never seen the Evil Dead movies, you're going to love this show too, because we don't leave you behind. It's open to all.

BWW: When you take the show Madrid or Seoul, is it in translation or is it performed in English?

REINBLATT: So right now it's in Sweden, and amazingly, it's in English there. In Korea, it was translated. The woman who translated actually is a very talented playwright of her own who had a play at The Public Theatre in New York. In Madrid, it was translated as well. The Korean translation has done very, very well; people love it there. The translator had to take lot of liberties because there's so many nuances of the Korean language that you can't translate directly word for word.

Like I said, we have a moose that comes to life on our wall. And in Korea, they said they didn't know what a moose was. So instead they call it Rudolph and it's a reindeer. And he talks about Christmas. The crowd loves it, and we're really happy with what they did. There's a real art form to nailing what you're trying to say in the show while also kind of nailing the cultural place that it's going to.

BWW: It's funny that you have a show that's about demons and all sorts of otherworldly things and the thing that doesn't translate is the moose.

REINBLATT: Yeah. Like the demons are fine, but the moose, that's the real sticking point. Demons are universal. The Evil Dead franchise has worldwide popularity. But if you license the script from us, I provide a lot of options in the back of the book for the local references. Like, if you don't know what this means, just say this, whenever there's like a pop culture reference or something that may not fly worldwide.

BWW: But the Toronto audiences are getting the original references, I imagine?

REINBLATT: Yes, they are, but there's always little changes every year, some new modern references. You have our original director, Christopher Bond, who's been there from day one at the Tranzac, but also did the off-Broadway show in New York and all the Toronto productions. He's back this go around. I'm there, I'm heavily involved. A huge amount of our backstage crew who were involved in the first Tranzac show have been with us for 21 years. They're all still there.

BWW: It sounds like, if they've stuck around for 20 years, that it's a good show to work on.

REINBLATT: It's a good show to work on. But we've actually been very lucky. There was a lot of luck in that first go-around to find a crew who was that talented at the low budget that we had, who have then gone on to become superstars in their field. But we gave them their first shot.

Even our lead actor, he went off-Broadway, he played the lead for 10 years. He was that good. And we just happened to find him. He saw a posting at U of T and came to audition for us. That was the extent of our casting process. We put a flyer on the wall, said, do you want to audition? And we found our lead for 10 years.

There's been a lot of luck, and it's been cool to see all these same people all these years later and know they've been there for the whole ride.

BWW: Even though, if you're crewing the show, the cleanup must be intense.

REINBLATT: It's a lot of what we do. The technical aspects of this show are very unique. You watch it and there's some props that look cheesy on purpose. But at other times it's the most high-tech show there is. There's a whole blood system and a whole methodology to how we safely spray the blood, where we spray the blood, how it falls down. To clean up the show, we've got it down to a science because we do two shows a night on the weekends. It's kind of amazing how popular it seems to be to be in the splatter zone and get splashed with blood.

I don't understand it. That might sound strange. We created it. You're like, well, you're the one who told them to do it. I don't understand how many people want to sit through two hours of musical theatre and then get covered in blood. But I will tell you those seats sell out immediately. People really want it. And it's just part of the fun. You come dressed in white, you get covered in blood. Some people don't wash their clothes and then come back in their same bloody clothes a month later. These fans are crazy and I love them for it. And I will say, if you don't want to be covered in blood, which many don't, including myself, it is just as fun to sit a few rows back and watch these people get covered in blood.

Part of the nonsense of this show is getting to see this, and I can't stress enough that when you set foot in our theatre, it's unlike any theatre show you've ever seen. It's more fun than you'll ever have. And everyone leaves with a smile on their face, covered in blood or not. I think for some people it's a badge of honor.

BWW: When it comes to the theatre, especially with something like a cult classic, people want to be involved. They want to show that they're part of something. And I think that's part of the popularity of it, just to say, “This is proof that I participated in this phenomenon.”

REINBLATT: You're probably right. And it is so much fun to be in that mix, and people love it and they all take pictures in their bloody clothes. It is a real badge of honor. Every time we do this, we add new blood effects, so there's even more places of blood shooting. So even if you've been to a production before, you might still get surprised this time. You're going to get bloodier than even before. 

BWW: Apparently, you've even got a promotion going on for office parties where you can get your boss splattered with blood.

REINBLATT: Yeah. If you buy a group, you can send somebody up and we'll make sure we splatter them.

BWW: Is there anything that I haven't asked you about the show that you really want people to know?

REINBLATT: It's a lot of fun for us to be back. We are so proud to be back in Toronto. This show has gotten a life of its own. You can come experience the cult classic, and when people come, they always seem to want to come back. I met a guy the other day who'd been 83 times and I was more surprised he kept count. But he did. And it's actually not unusual. Most people come again and again and again and have seen it multiple times in multiple runs. We've just extended to January, which is our last extension, and it will sell out very quickly, so if you really do want to sit in the splatter zone, you should buy your tickets ASAP.

BWW: What could be better than walking around in Toronto in December covered with blood?

REINBLATT: Again, I'm not sure I understand it. But people like it. I've seen people come in their wedding dresses. I've seen people come in white tuxedos. Buy some white clothes and come on down, and it's going to be pretty nuts.

EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL runs at the Randolph Theatre through December. Photo credit: Starvox Entertainment

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