Evil - The Musical @ Point Hotel

Evil The Musical is a rough new musical comedy blending Marvellous comic-book puns with a spice of Douglas Adams' style random. There’s a kind of comicality that you can’t really level the criticism of being “cheesy” at – it’s meant to be cheesy. Such satire can be well done but often still get grating after a while.

For a musical the songs are quite few which is a shame: when they crop up they are used to good effect. It seemed as though many scenes could have been executed more economically and with more panache to a tune. Sadly, there is no epic Hero-Versus-Villain Sing-Off.

Evil includes some good performances, such as super-camp super-villain Professor Pinky played by Craig Kelly, Dan Henry’s almost entirely physical portrayal of “The Sidekick” who is never given the chance to be heard until the end, and writer Chris Fletcher’s performance as one of two labour-right savvy henchmen, but perhaps new Dewsbury-based IMPS Drama Group have yet to reach their potential.

Some of the scenes play well off established super-hero clichés and the play ends with a satisfying twist regarding the origin of super-villainy, but the narrative calls for some more refining and perhaps restructuring into something more consistent and story-like.