By Keith Kreitman
Palo Alto Players’ production of “Zombie Prom,” closing Sunday at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto, is a musical that appears at the outset to be so trivial and amateurish, I wondered if I should review it.
At first it seems to be a high school production badly satirizing “B” horror films and the problems and social structure of the Eisenhower era. Then I realized it is really a satire of a high school production that is badly satirizing the horror movies and nuclear fears of the era. Release the mind from the constraints of logic and it begins to get funny.
The school is named Enrico Fermi High after the physicist who helped created the atomic bomb. Star pupil Toffee (Lexie Lazear) falls for Jonny (Charlie Levy), an orphaned transfer student from the wrong side of the tracks.
This won’t do for her parents or tyrannical principal Delilah Strict (Julia Etzel). Toffee is forced to drop Jonny, who ends his life by driving his motorbike into the local nuclear plant.
Jonny soon reappears as a radioactive zombie and tries to re-enroll in school. The principal fights, and a student rebellion surfaces to allow him back.
Although Jonny’s zombie body is decaying, he attempts to get Toffee to attend the senior prom with him.
The story gets the attention of Eddy Flagrante (Dan Adamson), a seedy reporter for a scandal magazine who tries to exploit the situation by arguing Jonny’s civil rights are being violated.
Stay tuned for the surprising end of this moving drama.
The book and lyrics by Don Dempsey, corny as they seem, are actually clever. There are a lot of inside jokes from that bland post-World War II society. The satirized music of that era by Dana P. Rowe is not particularly memorable, but it is fun. Choreography by Greg Schuh and Christina Lazo is true to the musical “Grease.”
Etzel steals the show with her over-the-top performance. Lazear is cute and has a strong voice. Levy has good comic timing .
If you can stomach a decaying zombie and the corny entertainment of years past, this should be a lot of mindless fun for you.
For times, tickets and more information, call 329-0891.
