Re-Animator: The Musical

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The turn of the millennium heralded something of a renaissance of the zombie horror genre. Films like the Dawn of the Dead remake, the 28 Days Later series and even British horror-comedy cult blockbuster Sean of the Dead were box-office successes, while bestselling novel World War Z  was an immediate hit. But even amid this, and the current trend for adapting every film going into a musical, a stage adaptation of cult gore flick Re-Animator is an unexpected surprise.

As a pretty faithful adaptation of the screenplay—itself based on the the H.P. Lovecraft story Herbert West - Reanimator—this is a slick, professional and spectacularly messy achievement. Medical student Herbert West discovers a serum capable of returning the dead to life – but the process is far from perfect, leading to some gory outcomes for characters and audience alike.

Stuart Gordon—director of the 1985 film—reprises his role here, as do the writing team of Norris and Paoli. The cast are uniformly excellent: lead couple Dan and Meg portray a convincing deadpan romance, West's bug-eyed exhortations are genuinely creepy, and Dean Halsey—played by George Wendt, better known as Norm from Cheers—provides barrels of laughs as he's torn limb from limb. Composer Mark Nutter's original score is a pitch perfect mash-up of a classic horror soundtrack with Gilbert and Sullivan, although the production's heavy reliance on spectacular mess, splatter and special effects does leave choreographer Cynthia Carle with relatively little to do.

While there's not much more to this than a straight-up retelling of the film, fans of the cult classic will get real enjoyment out of the often startling faithfulness to it's source, and there's a spectacle on offer here for all gore-lovers. Just remember, if you're sitting in the front few rows, you'd be well advised to wear some old clothes – things are going to get messy.