The people at the UK’s Almost Legal Productions want to turn Shaun of the Dead into the next Rocky Horror Picture Show, and thanks to Simon Pegg their dream may be on the fast track to reality. Last year, director Chas Burns* organized a stage show of the 2004 zombie comedy and the culmination was four sold-out shows in October and November, and the show certainly received a little marketing help from Pegg, who tweeted about the event. Burns said that after that glorious 140-character endorsement, people suddenly wanted his new show being performed all over the globe.
The great news is that those four shows have turned into 15 touring dates for 2015, as Burns told Chortle a simple phone call to Pegg’s assistant led to not only the actor giving his blessing for a Shaun of the Dead stage show, but Working Title and Universal Pictures have also signed off. If we all cross our fingers and toes, that could lead to Shaun and Ed eventually coming to performing arts centers and hipster theaters near you. But don’t worry, this isn’t your typical boring musical.
‘It’s not a musical. Between you and I, I can’t abide musicals. It’s a production with tongue-in-cheek songs, with some extra stuff thrown in you won’t see in the film and deleted scenes that were left on the cutting room floor. I have always stated that if I ever see anyone yawning at one of our productions I will call it a day.’
‘It’s incredible the interest we’ve had, people have been waiting for it to happen and we’ve been lucky enough to find ourselves with the rights.
‘Yes we are a small company nobody has ever heard of, and some believe us to be amateur. We are often asked about our professional/amateur position and we merely answer with the same phrase every time: if you measure our professional character by the colour of money then it’s a sad day for theatre.’ (Via Chortle)
Now the bad news: Those 15 dates are only in Southwest England. So you can either start planning your trips across the pond now, or you can go sit on your front porch steps and pout. That is, unless you live in Gloucester or Worcester, in which case you can go and then brag about it. But then you’d be a jerk, so don’t do that (the bragging part, that is).
*No relation, but if I had a British cousin, his name would totally be Chas.