Redrum with Alice Ripley & Douglas Sills

[CoverYou]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 1:05pm

About a week and a half ago I was invited to a reading of a musical parody of the Shining called Redrum. I'm honestly tired with the whole musical parody thing but I cannot get this show out of my head. It was in a little theater in the East Village where they do that Saved By the Bell musical. I seriously thought it was going to be awful but went because I love Alice Ripley and knew she was playing Wendy. Going in I kind of felt bad for Alice having to do something like this. She should be doing the next Next to Normal, not a musical parody of the Shining.

Well holy crap, I was wrong. Redrum is funny. Like Avenue Q/Book of Mormon funny. The whole show is a riot. Alice was amazing. She's hilarious and has some of the best songs in the show. I'm still hearing her songs in my head. Her chemistry with Douglas Sills and Andre Ward (who played Dick) was off the charts. Douglas was perfect as Jack. I have a whole new appreciation for him. He was so good. I don't want to give the jokes away but Jack sings a song about having sex with Judy Blume and Laura Ingalls Wilder from Little House on the Prairie. I know. It sounds awful. It's not. The lyrics are clever and hilarious. I get invited to many readings and I've never ever seen one where the audience gave a standing ovation at the end.

Whoever cast this reading did a phenomenal job. The actors were all superb. I recognized many of them. Andre Ward, who I knew from Rock of Ages and Xanadu, was a highlight. He sang a duet with Alice that I would buy right now if it was on iTunes. Then they had Elle McLemore from Bring It On playing Danny the little boy in the shining. She was amazing. She sang a song about the little boy in my mouth that was another standout. Tyler Maynard who I knew from Altar Boyz stole the show every time he opened his mouth. Tom Deckman from Spamalot played Tony. He was so good. Making Tony a character was genius by the way. This didn't feel like a normal reading. The cast totally gelled together. That's a credit to the writer/director who was very adorable introducing the show and the cast. It was cute to see the excitement on his face and the face of the composer who played piano for the reading. The band the composer led were amazing. The show had a great sound.

Redrum really feels like Spamalot meets Little Shop. You can tell they were nodding to Little Shop when they used the Grady sisters as backup singers in many of the songs. I didn't think there was one bad song in the bunch. The book is really hilarious. It's full of funny jokes and bits. The humor shifts from subtle wordplay to dick jokes effortlessly. It's definitely not for kids though. It's filthy. Jack and Danny sing a song about Danny sitting on his lap. It was uncomfortably funny. I was screaming.

I really think this has the potential to be a huge hit. Now I understand why Alice Ripley is doing this. I read in another article that it's supposed to open around Halloween. I can't wait.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 1:45pm

Sounds interesting. I agree that Alice should be doing high profile work, but she's been doing so little lately, I'm just glad to have her back doing anything!

[gstrus2]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 1:46pm

Is this off broadway or broadway aimed?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 2:30pm

"she's been doing so little lately"

Don't forget, Next to Normal did a number on her vocals so she probably needed time to heal and whatnot.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 5:50pm

Think it is better suited for off Broadway.

[CoverYou]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 11:44am

I'm not sure where they are aiming. The writer/director really didn't elaborate on what the next step was other than it being a 29 hour reading that we were seeing. I congratulated him afterwards but he was talking with friends in the lobby so I didn't want to press him for info.

My take? I think it has an off broadway spirit but feels like a real broadway show. It's more Little Shop than Silence or the 50 shades parody. I thought it was going to be a gag musical. It's definitely not that. There's a scope and vision behind this. From the stage direction that was being read it sounds like it's going to have some real choreography in it.

I'm a huge Alice fan so seeing her in great material like this was a delight. It reminded me of seeing her in Rocky Horror way back when. She was very cute. You could tell she loves doing this piece. I thought she looked amazing, her voice sounded great and she had killer harmonies with Andre Ward and the actresses playing the Grady Sisters. The ensemble was so strong and connected. If they translate that to stage this has a good chance to be a hit which would make me thrilled for Alice.

Since I haven't won the Hamilton lottery yet or seen Something Rotten, getting to see the sneak peak of this has me so excited. I completely walked out of the reading thinking I need to see this again. I was buzzing. I hope it happens for Alice and that whole group involved. It's just bizarre. It's a parody of the shining and it's feel good show.

[gstrus2]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 11:27am

Anyone have updates on this? Really want to see this one. 

[LarryD2]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 11:29am

""she's been doing so little lately"

Don't forget, Next to Normal did a number on her vocals so she probably needed time to heal and whatnot."

 She's been working plenty, actually, but many on this board think that if you're not on Broadway you're not doing anything.

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 11:37am

These musical parodies are curious to me. Does Stephen King have to sign off on this if none of the character names are changed?  Didn't I read there was already an authorized stage version (an opera perhaps?) being developed from THE SHINING? Wouldn't this be a conflict of interest?

[Barihunk]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 12:00pm

Yes, an operatic treatment of "The Shining" premieres in May 2016 at Minnesota Opera. The composer is Paul Moravec and the libretto is by Mark Campbell who provided the lyrics to the songs that made up "Tales from an Unmade Bed". 

[gschuber]

Posted: 5/7/15 at 7:38pm

This sounds like fun! Alice is in San Diego, about to open in a new musical about Harry Nilsson.  Everybody's Talking

[gleek4114]

Posted: 10/11/16 at 11:46pm

I had been wondering what was going on with this. Happy to see they are still working on it... https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Alice-Ripley-and-Marc-Kudisch-to-Star-in-REDRUM-Parody-on-Halloween-at-Feinsteins54-Below-20161011

[CoverYou]

Posted: 10/13/16 at 5:30pm

Thanks for posting about this gleek4114! I just got my tickets. The reading I attended had Douglas Sills instead of Marc Kudisch  playing Jack and Elle McLemore as Danny instead of Remy Zaken, but Kudisch was the original Jack in the video for this so this should be awesome. Can't wait to see Alice Ripley sing with Andre Ward again!