For anyone who has seen The Book of Mormon, the musical comedy has kind of been killed. Everything pales in comparison to it. I loved Evil Dead the Musical when I first saw it. Then, when I listened to the soundtrack later, after I had seen The Book of Mormon and purchased its soundtrack, I was disappointed.

(Note: This adaption is something like the 9th stage adaptation of Cannibal the Musical. In the last 14 years. It is differentiated from the others by being professional, relatively speaking, but also because it’s proper title is Trey Parker’s Cannibal the Musical, and I think previous adaptations were not called that (also they were mostly amateur productions.)

This adaption is co-written by at least one of the people responsible for Evil Dead but I think it might be stronger than that show. It’s clearly a post-Book of Mormon musical, as the choreography is quite strong and the songs are strong even when they aren’t funny. (And they start off being not that funny – the show saves its better material for later, which is how it should be.)

There are a few too many ideas – for example the Super Mario joke feels completely unnecessary and I don’t know why it was left in, same with the Kill Bill joke. But most of the other pop culture references are stronger and make more sense, and the show manages to balance crude humour – some of which does feel a little forced – with, as I noted, excellent songs, excellent choreography and enough “shocks” – for lack of a better word – that you don’t care that the opening is a little slow and that “fuck” is used to get some cheap laughs. Okay, a lot of cheap laughs.

On the whole it was really enjoyable and it is the rare show that gets better as it goes on. I would highly recommend going to see it.

8/10