<Back

Bestill his heart: Zombies have feelings too this weekend at Flanagan

Although some Grinnellians might feel and look “dead” from time to time, Linn Davis ’08 has them beat, at least for this weekend. Sporting more than sallow skin and baggy eyes, Davis is a zombie, and a heartbroken one at that.

Directed by Laura Marx ’07 and sponsored by GIMP, Zombie Prom, by Dana P. Rowe and John Dempsey, features everything everyone loves and hates about high school, dances, singing and the undead.

The musical presents a fairly simple boy-meets-girl story line but with one major twist: its protagonist lacks a pulse. The boy, Jonny, played by Linn Davis ’08, is from the wrong side of the tracks and falls in love with Toffee (Stevie Schein ’08) during a lunch room nuclear attack drill. After her parents and Principal Delilah Strict (Katherine Jarvis ’09) pressure Toffee into breaking up with him, Jonny throws himself into a vat of nuclear waste. He hears her voice from the other side, and wishing only to return to his beloved Toffee, go to prom and graduate, Jonny returns to his high school as a zombie. Ace sleaze reporter Eddie Flagrante (Ben Baker ’06) and Miss Strict add to the drama.

Though its ending may seem to be tense and dramatic, Zombie Prom is overall a light-hearted musical and the actors have fun with their parts, whether singing, dancing or acting. Their comedic timing rarely fails to amuse.

With a good cast, from the extremely energetic Davis to the delightfully almost draconian Jarvis, and an abundance of zombie and tactless death jokes, Zombie Prom is worth seeing for any fan of musicals, comedies or zombies.

—reviewed by Christine McCormick

Sidebar: Different kinds of zombies

•Toxic zombies:

Brought back by radiation or chemicals; usually flesh-eating. This is by far the most common type of zombie portrayed in films. Quite often the government has something to do with the “birth” of these. Watch out for Army trucks with barrels on the back going through campus.

•Demon zombies:

Re-animated by demon, devil or other evil spirit.

•Voodoo/black magic zombies:

Brought back by a voodoo master.

•Diseased zombies:

Vague type spread by infection, such as by the bite of the Sumatran rat monkey or the common Grinnell squirrel.

•Unsettled zombies:

Return because of some unfinished business, usually revenge or love.

•Alien zombies:

Brought back by aliens; usually to serve them as an aid in taking over the Earth.

•Techno zombies:

Re-animated by technology; implanting a computer chip in the brain, etc.

•Electric zombies:

Brought back by a shock from electricity of some sort.

•Dag zombies:

Brought back either by a necromancer or by touching the re-gen point, these zombies cannot run and walk about with swords or other Dag weapons saying “Brains” repeatedly.

– some information from www.zombiejuice.com

<Back