No movie is safe from a musical reinterpretation. Broadway has been dazzled with reinventions like The Producers, Sunset Boulevard, and Death Becomes Her, while off-Broadways got weirder with offerings like Heathers, Teeth, and Little Shop of Horrors.
But how do you turn The Exorcist, a truly iconic horror movie about demons and sacrilege, packed with practical effects that seem impossible to recreate on stage, into a musical comedy?
For writer Michael Shaw Fisher, you come at it from a lot of angles. Inspired by the madcap humor and fourth-wall-breaking of John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Fisher created Exorcistic: The Musical. Rather than playing like a straight-up parody (like Teeth), Fisher not only recreates scenes from William Friedkin’s famous film, but also presents them as a play-within-a-play. Confused? Oh, just you wait.
For every truly rousing musical number or solidly silly gag, Exorcistic: The Musical is cluttered by bits and big ideas that just don’t play out.
Exorcistic: The Musical is more than a parody of The Exorcist.
Jaime Lyn Beatty and cast of “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit: David Haverty
Rather than rolling right in with the first number “A Christian in Iraq (Pazuzu Theme),” Exorcistic: The Musical sets up the cast and crew behind the rock musical. The cast piles onto the stage, introducing themselves as actors or actor/producer, actor/writer, and so on. Among them are familiar archetypes: the elegant leading lady, the ambitious ingenue, the playboy leading man, the pompous author, the egotistical character actor, the cheerful elder, and the infuriated stage manager.
Rather than just following the plot of The Exorcist, Fisher is introducing a thread about warring egos, pretentious showmanship, and toxic showmances. But that’s not all. At the start, the cast welcomes the audience to a stage reading, then begins acting out the movie — initially with minimal props, like a sheet music stand. But then they pause to do an “anatomy of scene.” In these segments, which pop up throughout the show, the actors break out of their Exorcist-inspired roles as possessed child, concerned mom, and plagued priest to lecture the audience about what the source material meant. But even here they’re acting, playing actors explaining The Exorcist.
Frankly, these sections are tedious. Even when the insights revealed are interesting, they feel like a lecture, or worse, yet a justification that The Exorcist is important enough to merit a parody rock musical to begin with. It’s a hat on a hat on a hat. A parody about The Exorcist — even an unofficial one — could have brought the irreverent fun of Puffs, an unofficial Harry Potter comedy that wowed audiences by focusing on the much-ignored Hufflepuffs. Piling on the play-within-a-play to make Exorcistic: The Musical not only a parody of The Exorcist but also a parody of parody musicals is ambitious enough. Then, Fisher adds on the “anatomy of scene” interludes. Some of the elements of the play parody and the Exorcist parody work. But altogether, it’s a tangle of ideas and emotions that make the actual production hard to follow and less fun.
Emma Hunton is worth the ticket price of Exorcistic: The Musical.
Emma Hunton as Megan in “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit: David Haverty
This musical parody works best when it delivers on what the title promises. Emma Hunton stars as Megan O’Neil — the legally distinctive parody of The Exorcist‘s Regan MacNeil. And while the repetition of characters saying things like “Regan — I mean Megan!” gets old fast, Hunton is on fire on that stage. Her first big number is “Howdy Captain Rowdy,” which involves a Ouija board, a demon with horns and cowboy attire, and a none-too-subtle metaphor for discovering masturbation. It’s outrageous, and Hunton revels in it with a mesmerizing gusto.
As Megan becomes increasingly possessed by Captain Rowdy, Hunton’s behavior becomes more aggressive and sexual. This sets the stage for the reenactment of some epically disturbing scenes from The Exorcist, involving peeing on a rug, projectile vomiting on a priest, playing with a crucifix, and levitating off her bed. Surprisingly, the spectacle bits that work best are simple, relying chiefly on Hunton’s performance over what an off-off-Broadway budget could manage in terms of effects.
Mashable Top Stories
Emma Hunton as Megan in “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit: David Haverty
Hunton explodes on stage, singing bright and brash like a Broadway diva. Through her physical comedy, she relishes in the pre-established transgressive behaviors of Regan — including taunting this critic during the urination scene by flicking the flow of liquid closer while making eye contact. But she’s absolutely phenomenal in the second act break number, “Your Cunting Daughter.”
Carrying the harrowing realization of just bad things have gotten in this D.C. home, Megan unleashes a scorching song number that not only rocks, it goes full-on Fosse. A quick change reveals a puke-green fringe dress, which Hunton shakes with deliberate abandon, while pulling dance moves that seem stolen from Chicago. It’s deranged and absolutely exhilarating.
Exorcistic: The Musical does too much.
The cast of “Exorcistic: The Rock Musical.”
Credit: David Haverty
This turducken of a play gets more confusing as it goes. Essentially, within the play it’s not that Emma (the fictional character) is getting great at playing a possessed Megan, it’s that she has also been possessed.
Then, in between acts, the fictional cast makes the leap from off-Broadway to Broadway, as we’re informed by an untraditional post-intermission curtain speech. Over the course of the show, the actors (played by actors) have seen the production develop over months, while we see small changes, like better props and flashier costumes. However, the show itself does not grow in the same way.
While there are suitably silly songs like “A Movie Star With a Fucked Up Kid” and “The Jesuit Blues,” the show suffers when Hunton isn’t on stage. Her co-stars, while earnest, don’t have her ability to project. The night I attended, the sound mix was off, so the lyrics of several numbers was absolutely drowned out by the rock band meant to be backing them. In dialogue scenes, Jaime Lyn Beatty was a standout, playing the stage manager determined to get her moment in the spotlight. But when it came to songs, Hunton never got drowned out.
To director Chadd McMillan’s credit, the cast tries to make the most of the space. Performed at the Asylum in New York (where this critic previously saw and praised the musical comedy Cellino V. Barnes), Exorcistic: The Musical has a small stage to work on. So, from the first scene, the cast makes clear the whole of the theater is their play space.
They stomp off the stage for group numbers, and storm up the stairs, deep into the audiences’ seating. They even interact, urging audience members in the front row or the aisle to get in on the action. This could mean holding a prop for a character break, grabbing a boob from a consenting actress, getting flirted with by a demon, or getting drenched in glittery confetti. (I can speak from experience, you’ll be finding confetti in your hair for hours, if not a whole day after.) A less welcome side effect of the actors’ getting this close to the audience included inadvertently being spit on. Of course, this can be a part of passionate singing. But, be warned: There is a splash zone, and it is the front row.
While I appreciate the production’s moxie in using the space so fully, it actually makes seats toward the front a bad view! For several numbers I had to crane completely around to see what was going on behind me. And as some of the gags — like a lackluster projectile vomit moment — failed to impress, I wished the focus had been less on the stairs and more on how to make these big moments really shine.
Sure, an off-Broadway production can’t compete with the zany perfection of Death Becomes Her‘s stair-fall sequence. But as Cellino V. Barnes proved last year, a small stage can work great if the concept is focused. Here, Fisher feels like he’s throwing so many ideas at the audience, surely something will hit. But in the barrage, I was often more flustered than enthralled.
Exorcistic: The Musical has a lot of energy. But the bits of it that are not a rock musical take away from the parts of it that are. The ingenue getting possessed concept is fun, playing into the idea that the movie was cursed — and thereby wouldn’t a parody of it be too? But Fisher bogs down the play with too much flare and loses focus.
Simply put, this parody works best when it leans on what we loved about The Exorcist — the creepy visuals, Linda Blair’s legendary performance — and gives them a loving but silly sendup. In this moments, Exorcistic: The Musical is devilishly beguiling. Unfortunately, those highs are too few and far between.
Exorcistic: The Musical is now playing at the Asylum in New York.
