ZOMBIES ARE COMING TO THE 2014 HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL

Victorian Courting and Zombies

This year, the Hollywood Fringe Festival is in for a not-so-scary Friday the 13th experience. There will be zombies, but instead of lusting after brains, they will be singing and dancing.

VICTORIAN COURTING & ZOMBIES, a 45-minute “musical comedy with bite” set in the Regency Period, will receive a three-performance run at the Dorie Theatre at the Complex. The hapless and ill-fated Funktard sisters have been left destitute and must marry off Beth to a wealthy suitor. If only one of the suitors could look past the sisters’ facial defects, extra limbs, and miniscule dowry and see their inner beauty. Their luck may turn around when Mr. Blubberbutt invites them to his ball and introduces them to an interesting fellow with a limp, a grunt, and an appetite for flesh.

Authors Susan Sassi (book) and Bryan Blaskie (music and lyrics) are thrilled to bring ZOMBIES to the Fringe. After a successful premiere performance at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and then a re-launch as part of iO West’s “LA Scripted Comedy Festival”, they added more songs and more “romance” before bringing it to the Fringe. “I always felt there needed to be a big dance number,” says Blaskie. “This whole show is set during the biggest ball of the year, so why shouldn’t there be more celebration? Now, because of the size of the Dorie, we get to have fun with that.”

Sassi, who also plays Beth, the naïve and oblivious sister who falls for Mr. Blubberbutt’s guest, took on the project because she wanted to satirize the courtship era. “As a female writer, I’m sensitive to the female characters that were so prevalent during that time. I wanted to take our show beyond a shallow parody and really explore where these women came from, why they thought the way they did, and why the whole courting ritual was so important. That’s where the humor comes from.” Throughout the show, Sassi’s book makes references to gender inequality and societal expectations. Some characters are even purposefully miscast.

VICTORIAN COURTING & ZOMBIES runs Friday, June 13 at 11:00pm, Saturday, June 21 at 5:30pm, and Saturday, June 28 at 11:00pm at the Dorie Theatre at the Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles 90038. Tickets are $10 and available online at http://hff14.org/1828 or at the door.