This is the third in a series of roundups covering shows appearing in the New York Musical Theatre Festival , or NYMF . Every year I attend as many shows as I can and invariably see one or two that will rank among the best of the year, as well as discovering some new talented performers and behind the scenes artists I'll want to keep an eye on in future productions. Go to the NYMF website for more info on inexpensive tickets.
Here is a ready for Off Broadway crowd-pleaser complete with a pre-sold title, a strong cast and a "splash zone" in the first four rows where audience members can happily don ponchos so the copious amounts of blood and other fluids that are sprayed from the stage can be enjoyed to maximum effect.
Re-Animator was a key horror film in the comic wave that included Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 and other gleefully goofy fare. Director Stuart Gordon has returned to his earliest success with pleasure, tweaking the book he co-wrote and helming this musical to pitch it at a wider audience. The movie's most infamous moment (involving a re-animated head and a sex act) is still present but more suggestive than outrageous and the rest of the violence is actually kind of sweet since it's done with old-fashioned theater tricks and all for laughs. Daring parents can take older kids without fear, as long as they're not embarrassed by a lights-out sex scene (lots of silly moaning) and buckets of blood spilled purely for the heck of it.
Dan (Chris L. McKenna) is a dutiful med student in love with the daughter of the dean (George Wendt of Cheers). He's a caring physician in the making until his new roommate turns out to be the obsessed Herbert West (a pitch perfect Graham Skipper). When Herbert isn't accusing their teacher Dr. Hill (Jesse Merlin) of plagiarism, he's down in the basement trying to bring dead flesh back to life...and succeeding!
The tone is mock serious from the very beginning, with a functional if not overly imaginative set by Laura Fine Hawkes serving as a home, hospital, lab, morgue and so on with minimal effort. No one really cares since the main focus is to spray blood, pass around a squishy brain among the audience, camp it up by being deadly serious and generally have a messy, silly time.
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