Conceived and directed by Max Resto, The Zombies: a Musical is a send-up of Zombie flicks of yore. The Zombie Apocalypse has arrived and the characters in the musical, who haven’t been infected quite yet, are doing whatever it takes to survive. Some of the last surviving humans barricade themselves within two neighboring stores. Inside the gunship include Otis the gun-slinging hillbilly and his pal Bruce, who’s brought his two sons, Junior and Little Pete, with him. Across the way is Pedro’s restaurant and its inhabitants, the always sweeping Pedro, emo-gothic Chloe, the wise Odessa, and stoner Basil. As the story progresses, family drama and love triangle magically appear out of nowhere all while facing the harassment of graceful dancing zombies.

The entire ensemble is committed, giving all they’ve got in their performance. With lackluster material and little to do, the characters are ordinary and desire depth and an arc. Of course, there are some that breakthrough the mundane. Rich Hollman as Otis is great, creating a hilarious character. He has a great vocal, providing even more comedy for Otis. While Junior’s story line is intriguing, the character is not as developed as he should be. Despite this, Alex Daly gives a solid performance with his show stopping rock out number. Alex Parrish as Little Pete and Daley’s Junior have great chemistry together as siblings. Though the late discovery of Pete’s age is disheartening. The Zombie chorus is fun but quite redundant, appearing way too often, serving more as a distraction to the weak script and score. Sam Given, billed as Will the Butt Naked Zombie, is so talented and wonderful to watch, he stands out as a terrific dancer in the Zombie chorus.
The choreography by Tricia Brouk overall was topnotch. The fluidity of movement she created for the zombies was pleasant to watch. When there was choreography during numbers that either didn’t require storytelling or was not a production number, the question of “why now” came up. And it came up way too often. Annette Weterby’s costume design is brilliant. The Zombies are so well done, aided greatly by Michelle Buongiovanni’s makeup design, they are the saving grace of the production. Overall, the costume design is quite strong with the great exception of the distracting and illogically unstereotypical mesh shirt Junior is forced to wear.
Projection design by Chris J. Noon adds nothing to the piece, especially when actors are forced to interact with it, there’s a loop of a distracting flickering light, or the Zodiac signs circle around during the love song. With the placement of certain set pieces, they ended up being in the way of the projections anyway. In the day and age of electronic music in theater, stripped down bands are common. With a “band” of two on the keys, the additional pre-recorded music to fill the band was a disservice to the actors. The dialogue in between verses and choruses seemed painfully timed to ensure they fit inside the canned vamps. With no room for error, acting these moments may have been an afterthought. In the small space and no band to compete with, the sound mixing was a disaster. The individual microphones were not helpful, occasionally dropping out during key musical moments.
By presenting in a venue like the Peter Jay Sharp theater with a steep ticket price, there is an expectation of great quality. While quality may have come in the form of costumes and makeup, the rest of the production greatly suffered. The Zombies: a Musical was an unfortunate case of not being ready for a grand production. It was an ambitious undertaking that may be remembered for all the wrong reasons.