The good news: it washes off!

Against advice, I wore a white T-shirt to the opening night of Evil Dead – The Musical with the knowledge that I was seated in the so-called “splatter zone”.

And despite wearing a plastic rain poncho for the second act, I still came away looking like someone tangentially involved in some grisly crime. Had I not been wearing it, I would have come away looking like the victim of one.

Evil Dead – The Musical. Photo © Peter Stoop

Paying goofy homage to Sam Raimi’s movies, Evil Dead – The Musical tells the tale of a quintet of college students who break into a deserted cabin, discover an ancient Book of the Dead in the cellar (along with an audio cassette that helpfully translates Sumerian into English) and accidentally summon the demonic underworld. 

One by one, the friends are possessed – all except for homewares store employee Ash (Harley Dasey), who ends up having to amputate his own hand before sending his now flesh-eating former buddies to hell with nothing more than a 12-guage shotgun and a stump-mounted chainsaw.

Harley Dasey and Grace Alston in Evil Dead – The Musical. Photo © Peter Stoop

Adapted by George Reinblatt (book and lyrics; he also co-composed the songs with Frank Cipolla and Melissa Morris), Evil Dead takes its musical theatre cues from Rocky Horror. Its book scenes have the B-movie clunkiness of the Brad and Janet interplay. Do the Necronomicon is basically The Time Warp for the undead. Nothing here is meant to be taken seriously – not even the geysers of blood, the beheadings, or the story’s misogynistic streak (though in Reinblatt’s version, it is only an echo of the viciousness apparent in Raimi’s original).

The woodland cabin set (Eric Luchen) is primed with sight gags and prop jokes: a chatty hunting trophy, a manic cuckoo clock, doors begging to be burst through. The score is sharply played live by a three-piece band under director/keyboardist Mark Bradley. Lighting and sound (Jason Bovaird and Jacob Harwood, respectively) are tightly arranged.

Directed by Daniel Stoddart, the production blends mock sincerity and all-in commitment. Material this thin only works at full throttle, and the cast of mostly new faces throws itself into the carnage with gusto.

Emma Wilby and Jake Ameduri in Evil Dead – The Musical. Photo © Peter Stoop

Dasey makes an ideal Ash, his Bruce Campbell mannerisms finely tuned and his tenor voice has height and heft. Grace Alston relishes the switch from bimbo Shelley to bespectacled archaeologist Annie, whose steadily diminishing costume is an Act II running joke. Emma Wilby and Elaina Bianchi give it plenty in both human and demonic mode.

As the soon-to-be eviscerated high school jock Scott, Jake Ameduri’s accent is a hoot (fans of SNL’s soap-spoofing series The Californians will recognise it instantly). Oliver Clisdell (the hapless Ed, who can never get a word in until he’s actually dead) and Harrison Rilkey (Jake, a local redneck) have memorable moments.

It’s no masterpiece. But as an antidote to late-summer couch rot, it’s got plenty to offer.

Evil Dead – The Musical plays at the Seymour Centre, Chippendale until 21 March. It transfers to Chapel off Chapel, Melbourne 26 March – 12 April.