No film is protected from a musical reinterpretation. Broadway has been dazzled with reinventions like The Producers, Sundown Boulevard, and Dying Turns into Her, whereas off-Broadways acquired weirder with choices like Heathers, Enamel, and Little Store of Horrors.
However how do you flip The Exorcist, a very iconic horror film about demons and sacrilege, full of sensible results that appear not possible to recreate on stage, right into a musical comedy?
For author Michael Shaw Fisher, you come at it from loads of angles. Impressed by the madcap humor and fourth-wall-breaking of John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Indignant Inch, Fisher created Exorcistic: The Musical. Slightly than enjoying like a straight-up parody (like Enamel), Fisher not solely recreates scenes from William Friedkin’s well-known movie, but in addition presents them as a play-within-a-play. Confused? Oh, simply you wait.
For each actually rousing musical quantity or solidly foolish gag, Exorcistic: The Musical is cluttered by bits and large concepts that simply do not play out.
Exorcistic: The Musical is greater than a parody of The Exorcist.
Jaime Lyn Beatty and forged of “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit score: David Haverty
Slightly than rolling proper in with the primary quantity “A Christian in Iraq (Pazuzu Theme),” Exorcistic: The Musical units up the forged and crew behind the rock musical. The forged piles onto the stage, introducing themselves as actors or actor/producer, actor/author, and so forth. Amongst them are acquainted archetypes: the elegant main woman, the formidable ingenue, the playboy main man, the pompous writer, the egotistical character actor, the cheerful elder, and the infuriated stage supervisor.
Slightly than simply following the plot of The Exorcist, Fisher is introducing a thread about warring egos, pretentious showmanship, and poisonous showmances. However that is not all. Initially, the forged welcomes the viewers to a stage studying, then begins appearing out the film — initially with minimal props, like a sheet music stand. However then they pause to do an “anatomy of scene.” In these segments, which pop up all through the present, the actors get away of their Exorcist-inspired roles as possessed youngster, involved mother, and plagued priest to lecture the viewers about what the supply materials meant. However even right here they’re appearing, enjoying actors explaining The Exorcist.
Frankly, these sections are tedious. Even when the insights revealed are attention-grabbing, they really feel like a lecture, or worse, but a justification that The Exorcist is essential sufficient to advantage a parody rock musical to start with. It is a hat on a hat on a hat. A parody about The Exorcist — even an unofficial one — might have introduced the irreverent enjoyable of Puffs, an unofficial Harry Potter comedy that wowed audiences by specializing in the much-ignored Hufflepuffs. Piling on the play-within-a-play to make Exorcistic: The Musical not solely a parody of The Exorcist but in addition a parody of parody musicals is formidable sufficient. Then, Fisher provides on the “anatomy of scene” interludes. A number of the parts of the play parody and the Exorcist parody work. However altogether, it is a tangle of concepts and feelings that make the precise manufacturing arduous to observe and fewer enjoyable.
Emma Hunton is well worth the ticket value of Exorcistic: The Musical.
Emma Hunton as Megan in “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit score: David Haverty
This musical parody works greatest when it delivers on what the title guarantees. Emma Hunton stars as Megan O’Neil — the legally distinctive parody of The Exorcist‘s Regan MacNeil. And whereas the repetition of characters saying issues like “Regan — I imply Megan!” will get outdated quick, Hunton is on fireplace on that stage. Her first massive quantity is “Howdy Captain Rowdy,” which includes a Ouija board, a demon with horns and cowboy apparel, and a none-too-subtle metaphor for locating masturbation. It is outrageous, and Hunton revels in it with a mesmerizing gusto.
As Megan turns into more and more possessed by Captain Rowdy, Hunton’s habits turns into extra aggressive and sexual. This units the stage for the reenactment of some epically disturbing scenes from The Exorcist, involving peeing on a rug, projectile vomiting on a priest, enjoying with a crucifix, and levitating off her mattress. Surprisingly, the spectacle bits that work greatest are easy, relying mainly on Hunton’s efficiency over what an off-off-Broadway funds might handle by way of results.
Mashable High Tales
Emma Hunton as Megan in “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit score: David Haverty
Hunton explodes on stage, singing brilliant and brash like a Broadway diva. Via her bodily comedy, she relishes within the pre-established transgressive behaviors of Regan — together with taunting this critic through the urination scene by flicking the circulation of liquid nearer whereas making eye contact. However she’s completely phenomenal within the second act break quantity, “Your Cunting Daughter.”
Carrying the harrowing realization of simply dangerous issues have gotten on this D.C. dwelling, Megan unleashes a scorching track quantity that not solely rocks, it goes full-on Fosse. A fast change reveals a puke-green fringe gown, which Hunton shakes with deliberate abandon, whereas pulling dance strikes that appear stolen from Chicago. It is deranged and completely exhilarating.
Exorcistic: The Musical does an excessive amount of.
The forged of “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit score: David Haverty
This turducken of a play will get extra complicated because it goes. Primarily, throughout the play it is not that Emma (the fictional character) is getting nice at enjoying a possessed Megan, it is that she has additionally been possessed.
Then, in between acts, the fictional forged makes the leap from off-Broadway to Broadway, as we’re knowledgeable by an untraditional post-intermission curtain speech. Over the course of the present, the actors (performed by actors) have seen the manufacturing develop over months, whereas we see small adjustments, like higher props and flashier costumes. Nevertheless, the present itself doesn’t develop in the identical method.
Whereas there are suitably foolish songs like “A Film Star With a Fucked Up Child” and “The Jesuit Blues,” the present suffers when Hunton is not on stage. Her co-stars, whereas earnest, haven’t got her means to challenge. The night time I attended, the sound combine was off, so the lyrics of a number of numbers was completely drowned out by the rock band meant to be backing them. In dialogue scenes, Jaime Lyn Beatty was a standout, enjoying the stage supervisor decided to get her second within the highlight. However when it got here to songs, Hunton by no means acquired drowned out.
To director Chadd McMillan’s credit score, the forged tries to take advantage of the area. Carried out on the Asylum in New York (the place this critic beforehand noticed and praised the musical comedy Cellino V. Barnes), Exorcistic: The Musical has a small stage to work on. So, from the primary scene, the forged makes clear the entire of the theater is their play area.
They stomp off the stage for group numbers, and storm up the steps, deep into the audiences’ seating. They even work together, urging viewers members within the entrance row or the aisle to get in on the motion. This might imply holding a prop for a personality break, grabbing a boob from a consenting actress, getting flirted with by a demon, or getting drenched in glittery confetti. (I can communicate from expertise, you may be discovering confetti in your hair for hours, if not a complete day after.) A much less welcome aspect impact of the actors’ getting this near the viewers included inadvertently being spit on. After all, this may be part of passionate singing. However, be warned: There’s a splash zone, and it’s the entrance row.
Whereas I respect the manufacturing’s moxie in utilizing the area so totally, it truly makes seats towards the entrance a nasty view! For a number of numbers I needed to crane utterly round to see what was happening behind me. And as a number of the gags — like a lackluster projectile vomit second — didn’t impress, I needed the main target had been much less on the steps and extra on find out how to make these massive moments actually shine.
Certain, an off-Broadway manufacturing cannot compete with the zany perfection of Dying Turns into Her‘s stair-fall sequence. However as Cellino V. Barnes proved final yr, a small stage can work nice if the idea is targeted. Right here, Fisher appears like he is throwing so many concepts on the viewers, certainly one thing will hit. However within the barrage, I used to be typically extra flustered than enthralled.
Exorcistic: The Musical has loads of power. However the bits of it which are not a rock musical take away from the elements of it which are. The ingenue getting possessed idea is enjoyable, enjoying into the concept the film was cursed — and thereby would not a parody of or not it’s too? However Fisher bogs down the play with an excessive amount of flare and loses focus.
Merely put, this parody works greatest when it leans on what we beloved about The Exorcist — the creepy visuals, Linda Blair’s legendary efficiency — and provides them a loving however foolish sendup. On this moments, Exorcistic: The Musical is devilishly beguiling. Sadly, these highs are too few and much between.
Exorcistic: The Musical is now enjoying on the Asylum in New York.
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