Evil Dead Star Bruce Campbell Catches Musical
Posted August 12, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
‘Gimme some sugar, baby’
It’s a tagline to the cult-famous series ‘Evil Dead’ (the third, best known movie is called Army of Darkness) and the new musical based off the series is bringing in lots of sugar. No one appreciates the sweetness of a musical-gone-right more than star of the movies Bruce Campbell.
Campbell, who currently guest stars on USA ‘s ‘Burn Notice’ as an aging, alcoholic, womanizing former spy, was in Toronto on Saturday to talk about Evil Dead: The Musical.
“I laughed my ass off,” says Campbell , author of ‘If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie actor’.
Campbell, 50, best known for his over-the-top performance as Evil Dead’s chainsaw-wielding hero Ashley J. Williams, was in Toronto to participate in two raucous question-and–answer sessions with rabid fans.
“To be able to amalgamate all three Evil Dead movies together is a pain in the ass, I’m sure,” he says. “I liked the style of it, I liked the tone of it. I think they captured that sort of devil-may-care feel to it. I think it was very cleverly done, because that kind of thing can really suck.”
The musical, created with Campbell ‘s blessing by a group of young Canadian actors and writers in 2003, centres on five hormonal college students who break into a remote cabin for a night of drinking and debauchery.
After playing a cassette recording of phrases from a mysterious “Book of the Dead” they discover in the basement, the campers mistakenly unleash an evil force that promises to kill them by dawn.
One by one, Ash’s friends die in gory manner and turn into zombies, which then kill more friends and attack Ash.well, you get the idea.
The musical has earned rave reviews in Toronto and Montreal , as well as during an off-Broadway run in New York .
Campbell admitted feeling a little sorry for stage star Ryan Ward, a dead ringer for a young Campbell .
“It’s a hard role to play: it was hard in 1979, it was hard in 1986, and it was hard in 1991. Now the poor bastard’s doing it every night,” Campbell laughed. “He’s not running on imitation, and I appreciate that.”
Though the movies are gruesome (thanks to director Sam Raimi, who went on to direct the Spiderman movies), they’re also great for a laugh. Ash using a chainsaw to cut off his own hand after it becomes possessed by demons is a giddy bit played up onstage for its physical comedy.
“I’m in it just to be an actor. I’m very gratified that the first thing I’m in went on to have residual success,” Campbell says.
“Creatively, I haven’t worked on anything that comes near the `Evil Dead’ movies.”
” Evil Dead: The Musical” runs until Sept. 8 in Toronto .
