Evil Dead: The Musical and the Road Trip
By Roz Young, March 22 2011
A few months ago, I got a random message from the intern. It was an invite to see the Medicine Hat Community Theatre production of Evil Dead. The musical. So I sauntered over to Matt’s desk and asked him if he was interested. He casually shrugged and said maybe. Actually, I ran like a crazy woman haphazardly through the lab and careened into Matt’s desk and he threw papers into the air and cried. Once we had collected ourselves, we began the planning of our adventure in earnest. Step 1: Invite our spouses. Now, not everyone wets their pants at the mention of all things Bruce Campbell. And perhaps not surprisingly, Nelson and Eva were less than enthused about the idea of driving 5 hours to Medicine Hat to sit in the splatter zone at a horror musical. Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that David told us we could sit in the SPLATTER ZONE. Serious selling feature! The universe can be so awesome sometimes.
So, the wives were out. Now Step 2: Convince our spouses that we should go without them. Matt didn’t help us out much here by accidently booking a room with only one bed. Good work Matt. Luckily the hotel was very accommodating and completely understood our dilemma of platonic friendship road trip adventure to horror theatre. Two beds, check. Permission to get our Ash on, granted. I called the Medicine Hat theatre, arranged tickets in the holy zone of potential gore, and then we waited. It was agonizing.
Step 3: Travel to Medicine Hat. Sure, this sounds all easy peasy B-movie cheesy, but I had snacks to worry about and coffee to buy... It was a slog. We lost again at roll up the rim, and although I’m in a serious free-donut drought, I just couldn’t fall to my knees in a thunderstorm and cry into the heavens right before our epic adventure began. So I soldiered back to the car and we drove the first leg of our journey to Dino country. The big D. Drumheller.
We picked up a nifty little hand held audio recorder for our trip to podcast as we drove. And it worked great for stops, but was hard to use while driving. Evidence – the shitty road trip movies podcast in the middle of our Evil Dead tripcast you can find on the website (coming soon). Of course, as a girl, I have to stop to pee a lot so we recorded lots of droning drivel about our drive. Because it was SO scenic in the fog. Step 4: Find our hotel in Medicine Hat. We did. The end. There is no story here. I SAID THERE WAS NO STORY!
After checking in, David arranged to meet us at our hotel and give us a tour of MH. Step 5: Outfits. We knew that the splatter zone was going to mean getting dirty, and potentially ruining our clothes. So we thought that the best thing to do was to get decked out in sexy Value Village outfits. I procured a lovely lime green corduroy skirt with purple tights and a pink and purple plaid shirt. 
Back off boys, I’m taken. Matt rocked a hideous beige plaid vest with a muted striped shirt and ugly pants. 
Sorry ladies, he’s married too. Step 6: Dinner and a tour of the best under aged drinking spots southern Alberta has to offer.
Surprisingly to me, MH is full of deer. They were everywhere. Down by the river where kids drink, in the park where teenagers go drinking, and even at the school yards where local youngsters get high and drink. According to David, that also means there are lots of cougars around. Both kinds, but we didn’t get out to the bar to witness the majestic Medicine Hat cougar hunting in its native habitat.
And then the time came to get to the theatre and anxiously await our show. 
David stepped out for a smoke, which is so BAD for you, for shame intern! But... good, bad, he’s the guy with the tickets. 
Step 7: The show must go on! The splatter zone wasn’t reserved seating, so it was best to get there early. The only people who beat us there were a couple of zombies. And as much as we love to wait in lines (we really do, it’s an art not a science!), I don’t mind giving up the best seats to Evil Dead: The Musical to a handful of the walking dead. Inside, the theatre was quite small, but clean and organized. 
We met David’s mom, Becky Grewer, the vocal director and all around theatre mom. She was super!! And told us all about their previous shows, including the Full Monty (in which 3 of the 5 dudes went full on monty, I’m so jealous Becky!) and last year’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. She also bought us beer! We were blending right in. Like ninjas. And then Step 8: Jello shots. Heck yes!
At this point, I noticed that the seat occupied to my right was going to be interesting. The girl sitting beside me was blowing up water wings and had goggles ready. She doesn’t mess around when it comes to splatter. We had some time to soak in the ambiance of the MH Community Theatre, and it was just lovely. Kudos people, for such a small company, the cast pictures were hilarious and awesome and the bar was well done. The first prop to greet you is the Necronomicon and it looked fabulous! We were also getting a bit nervous as the warnings for the splatter zone continued. Step 9: Prepping for gore. Once you were seated, you could not leave (in case you bailed in the fake blood all over the floor), you could not touch the set (it was going to be all over you, no touchy!) and all of your belongings had to be stored in a plastic bag or left at coat check. What did we get ourselves in to!?!
Step 10: Evil Dead The Musical. 
I think Matt is going to write a blog about translating movies into musicals, because it’s an interesting idea and it doesn’t always turn out. We had lots to be concerned about before the show, the movie is dear to our hearts and has a lot of scenes that might not be stage material. I don’t want to say too much, in case you get a chance to be a part of the experience, but it works. It really does. You can listen to our podcast for more thoughts on the show, but it was tons of fun. The humour is a bit cruder than the movie but it gets laughs so who are we to argue? There were lots of entertaining musical numbers and the cast and crew did a great job with a small space and limited budget. The lead, Ash, did a great BC impression, and although his singing wasn’t blowing my tights off (granted we went closing night and they must have all been exhausted), it didn’t matter. He delivered classic Ash lines with all the cheese and eyebrow of a pro. And then the zombie killin’ started.
Step 11: Splatter. 
In the end, Ash needs to slay a bunch of bodies possessed by demons. As expected, the splatter started from the stage. What we did not anticipate was a bunch of people in black (the trees, who were hilarious, loved it) running around us with super soakers filled with fake blood. 
Just as Matt turned away from a giant glop of blood that took him across his left ear, he got a face full of blood from behind that stung like a bitch in his eyes. As the girl beside me lamented, “The googles do nothing!” We were dripping, sticky and drenched in red corn syrupy awesomeness. The pictures just don’t do it justice.
There are some times when a hot shower is just about the most fantastic thing ever. Step 12: The cleaning (not to be confused with the shining, although I generally have a lustrous coat afterwards). 
It’s magical to shower after a weekend camping, after floor hockey in a hot gym during the summer, and apparently, after sitting in the splatter zone at Evil Dead the musical. My hair. For the love of the space pope, my hair! Now, the reason the fake blood burns so bad in your delicate spaces, is that it has soap in it! Bad for eyes, good for cleaning! It washed right out, no problems. As Matt was showering, I turned on the TV and what else was playing but Planes, Trains and Automobiles! A classic road trip movie! Weird, right? Once we were all fresh and pretty again, we did some podcasting about the show and enjoyed our hotel room in geek style. By watching episodes of Community on Netflix. You are so jealous of our road trip, I can tell. I’m jealous now, just writing about it.
Welcome to Canada! We had big plans to hit the Tyrrell museum in Drumheller and frolic with dinosaurs, but alas, safety first. We drove straight back to Edmonton. But, Drumheller, we’ll be back. Oh we will back. Next time with our better halves, because they like science and dinosaurs too. Who doesn’t! Amirite!?! As we drove, we listened to music and snacked and discussed the snow and musical horrors and road trips. And then the weekend was over and our epic adventure complete. We’ll do this again, maybe to Roswell. And travel with a plucky alien who sounds like Seth Rogen. Shut up, I know that’s the plot of Paul, but I told you in may last blog that we’re Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Just without the cute accents and talent and fame. But, we’ve seen Evil Dead: The Musical, so they can eat their hearts out. Road trip to Medicine Hat FTW!!
