Look out Hollywood, you might not be “fresh enough”!
Re-Animator: The Musical has announced that it will be back for a Halloween run this October at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood, CA. The show will run October 17th through November 2nd, Fridays through Sundays at 8pm. There will also be preview shows on October 10th through 12th. Admission is $25 with the previews being $20. Tickets can be purchased here.
Head below for a lengthy description of the event, including details on cast and crew.
Re-Animator ™ the Musical” tells the story of Herbert West, a brilliant young medical student who has created a glowing green serum that can bring the dead back to life. What should be a medical breakthrough results in hideous monstrosities and ghastly consequences. “I guess he just wasn’t fresh enough,” is West’s constant refrain in his quest for fresh subjects. Graham Skipper, who won a Best New Performer Award at the New York Musical Theater Festival for his crowd-pleasing turn, returns as the demented young genius.
And operatic Jesse Merlin is back as Dr. Carl Hill who loses his head for Meg, the dean’s beautiful daughter, only to actually lose it at the hands of Herbert West. But thanks to the glowing re-agent, Dr. Hill is still able to take his curtain call with his head tucked underneath his arm.
Also returning from the original cast are (in alphabetical order) Cynthia Carle, Brian Gillespie, Marlon Grace, and Liesel Hanson playing an assortment of doctors, nurses, and rampaging zombies.
New to the cast and Los Angeles are Darren Ritchie (veteran of five Broadway shows, including “Dracula” and “Little Shop of Horrors”) as Dan Cain, the handsome young medical student (and West’s hapless roommate) in love with the dean’s beautiful daughter, now played by vivacious newcomer Jessica Howell (recently on Showtime’s “Masters of Sex”). Ken Hudson Campbell, familiar to many for saving the world with Bruce Willis in “Armageddon,” plays the doomed Dean of the medical school whom West transforms into a mindless zombie.
Stuart Gordon, the director and co-writer of “H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator,” the cult film on which the musical is based, has joined his fearless producing partner Dean Schramm to prove that anything that can be done in a movie can be a hundred times more astonishing live on stage. Gordon spent fifteen years as the founder and artistic director of the Organic Theater of Chicago, where he co-created the original production of “Bleacher Bums,” and produced and directed the world premiere of David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.” Gordon recently co-created and directed the long-running and critically acclaimed ”Nevermore” with “Re-Animator” film star Jeffrey Combs as Edgar Allan Poe that is now touring the country.
Mark Nutter is composer and lyricist and his cheerfully disturbing songs have been compared to Tom Lehrer. His previous stage credits include the international hit “The Bicycle Men”; “Christmas Smackdown” (created with the equally demented Cynthia Carle): and “Wild Men.” He’s also known for his work on “3rd Rock From the Sun” and “Saturday Night Live.” His CD “Twisted Songs for Twisted Sophisticates” has been banned from the airwaves.
Special effects are from by the same team that created them for the “Re-Animator” movie: Tony Doublin, John Naulin, and John Beuchler. They all won LA Critics’ and LA Weekly Awards for their mind-boggling illusions. And the blood will flow so freely that the first row will be once again designated as a “splash zone” – so bring your raincoats!
Laura Fine Hawkes, who designed the almost-as-bloody “Lieutenant of Inishmore” at the Taper, will provide the creepy sets, Joe Kucharski the moldering costumes and Jeff Ravitz the cadaverous lighting. Stage manager Michael Lemek will be the master of the mayhem.
“Re-Animator™ the Musical” was developed and premiered at the Steve Allen Theater under the artistic direction of Amit Itelman who also founded Trepany House.