Re-Animator The Musical – Assembly George Square Theatre
Music and lyrics: Mark Nutter
Book: Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon & William J. Norris
Director: Stuart Gordon
Reviewer: Jonathan Grant
The Public Reviews Rating: 
Re-Animator The Musical demands that your already suspended disbelief be further strung up as high as you can muster. This is a musical that is as deliciously ( or should that be disgustingly ) ridiculous, as it is professionally delivered.
Stuart Gordon has taken his 1980s B-movie feature “H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator” and re-animated it for the stage. We meet students Dan Cain and Herbert West ( Chris L. McKenna and Graham Skipper respectively ) as they are half way through their medical training, where Cain and the Dean’s daughter Megan ( Rachel Avery )are lovers. Critical to the plot is West’s quest to further research into re-animating the dead using a green potion injected into a corpse. To say anymore would spoil.
Skipper in geeky glasses and black suit sings strongly as he embodies a nerd with a ghoulish secret. McKenna ably plays a solid college guy who finds his life overtaken by circumstances as the plot unfolds. Avery’s Megan is straight out of the Janet mould from Rocky Horror. She looks a picture, and her acting and vocal work shine. An extra treat in the cast is George Wendt, Norm from TV’s Cheers, who delivers a performance to relish as the Dean, whilst Jesse Merlin’s Hill is the archetypal bad guy, sung and performed with complete plausibility. Hill’s demise in the show is as gruesome as it is hilarious. Also worthy of mention is Marlon Grace whose performance as Mace, a beautifully baritoned morgue guard, is a scream.
Oh, and the first three rows of the audience are provided with ponchos to shield them from the showers of fake bodily fluids that frequently spatter them from the stage.
An audience member was overheard saying ” this show’s got zombies and music. What’s not to like?” He was not wrong.
Runs until 27 August
Re-Animator The Musical - Assembly George Square Theatre,Tags: Chris L. McKenna, Dennis Paoli, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe, George Wendt, Graham Skipper, H.P. Lovecraft, Jesse Merlin, Marlon Grace, Rachel Avery, Reanimator, Stuart Gordon, William J. Norris
