New shows this week from three bay area theaters

The bay area’s professional theaters are firing on all cylinders in October/November. Joining Jobsite’s Stephen King/John Mellencamp musical thriller Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, which opened Oct. 17, are three more shows making their debuts this week, in the lead-up to Halloween and through turkey season.

Evil Dead the Musical at Stageworks Theatre, Tampa

Based on the Sam Raimi horror movie franchise (it utilizes plot elements from the first two Evil Dead movies), the musical features as its central character the chainsaw-wielding Ash Williams, who is forever battling “Deadites,” those possessed by the ancient evil of the Kandarian Demon.

The musical begins as you’d expect, with college students visiting a creepy cabin in the woods.

Fun is poked at all the usual horror movie tropes, even as blood is spilt (the theater’s first three rows encompass the designated “splash zone”). Songs include “I’m Not a Killer,” “Look Who’s Evil Now,” “What the F*@k Was That?” and “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Kandarian Demons.”

Karla Hartley directs Evil Dead the Musical Oct. 24 (this Friday) through Nov. 16, with a preview performance Thursday. Visit this link for showtimes and tickets.

Robert Teasdale, left, Natalie Symons and Eric Davis appear in “Deathtrap” at freeFall Theatre. Photo provided.

Deathtrap at freeFall Theatre, St. Petersburg

Ira Levin’s 1978 suspense thriller holds the record for Broadway’s longest-running comedy-slash-thriller (it ran for four consecutive years).

Deathtrap is the story of Sidney Bruhl, a once-successful playwright who’s just barely survived a recent string of flops. When he receives a brilliant script written by one of his former students, Bruhl devises a plan to steal the work and pass it off as his own. Etcetera, etcetera.

The narrative utilizes a “play within a play” device, keeping the audience consistently off-balance and guessing about what is real and what is staged. Quoth Cue Magazine: “Two-thirds a thriller and one-third a devilishly clever comedy … Suspend your disbelief and be delighted. Scream a little. It’s good for you.”

Matthew McGee directs Deathtrap Oct. 24 (this Friday) through Dec 7. There are preview performances Thursday and Friday. Visit this link for showtimes and tickets.

Hundred Days at American Stage, St. Petersburg

Debuting Oct. 24 (this Friday) after two preview performances, American Stage is putting on an unconventional musical about an unconventional couple, Abigail and Shaun Bengson. The New Yorkers are singer/songwriters as well as actors and (in this case) playwrights; they co-wrote Hundred Days with Sarah Gancher.

It’s the autobiographical story of a whirlwind romance (which really happened) and the inevitable questions and doubts that follow in the wake of love’s first, passionate blush.

They’ve harnessed that emotional rush, and its attendant uncertainly, into the idea of “loving as if you only had 100 days to live.”

Stage Left, in its review of the Off Broadway production, called Hundred Days “a Brooklyn hipster’s dream of a concert musical,” and said it was “a unique and beautiful show.”

Nick Sugar directed and choreographed Hundred Days, Oct. 22-Nov. 16. Visit this link for showtimes and tickets.