The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the largest newspaper in Ohio, has included “The Texas Chainsaw Musical!” in its list of the top 10 productions of 2012.
“We couldn’t be more honored”, says co-author, Christopher Minori. “The play was in Cleveland in January of 2012, and the article came out nearly a year later, in December, and they still remembered us as being one of their favorites.”
Here’s what The Plain Dealer had to say:
In terms of live, sticky spectacle this year, it was hard to beat the inaugural work presented by the Blank Canvas Theatre. Thanks to staged carnage that would make Caligula blush — courtesy of a “blood plumber & blood effects” coordinator — audience members who braved the “splatter zone” inside the 78th Street Studios were drenched in arterial spray and other ghastly gore.
Loosely based on the life and gory times of real-life serial killer Ed Gein, a repressed mama’s boy living in a desolate farmhouse in 1950s Wisconsin, “The Texas Chainsaw Musical!” is a touching tale.
Boy meets the weapon of his dreams — in this case, a Homelite chain saw — boy uses his motorized soul mate (and other sharp objects) to dismember, well, everyone. Nobody — not Brownies, paperboys or blind, pregnant census workers — is safe.
Sure, the book by Christopher Minori is insanely clever, the music and lyrics by Cory Bytof toe-tapping and equally mad, with a few goose-bump-inducing numbers by the talented ensemble even hitting that rock-opera sweet spot. But that splatter zone deserved a standing O of its own.
For the full article, visit The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s website.
