TOO MUCH HEART; NOT ENOUGH BLOOD
Directed by Braxton Crewell, the Factory Theater’s production of Cody Lindley and Nate Hall‘s new rock musical Stabbed in the Heart has some hilarious moments and memorable music, but doesn’t quite hit the mark as a slasher-movie parody, if indeed that is the mark.
Trish (Madeline Ackerlund) drags her college roommate Lia (Jasmine ‘Jas’ Robertson) to a cabin weekend with her friends from high school. Their fun-filled weekend quickly turns dark when a masked murderer starts stabbing the kids before they are even old enough to vote. The creators are out to merge Halloween and Spring Awakening, thus these teens are not only trying to escape the knife, but have to deal with dramatic social dynamics, emotional outbursts, and coming of age elements.
Lindley and Hall have set the musical on the right track as a slasher parody but haven’t quite gotten the teen angst to successfully leave the station. One issue is that they clearly place Lia in the protagonist role but give Trish the central love story and several big songs, which makes Trish and Lia feel like dual protagonists. Personally, I could do without the love story altogether. In general, I feel the musical spends too much time on the emotional arcs of these characters and not enough time on the slasher aspect. I appreciate a musical that gives us emotional complexity, but when I show up to a slasher parody, shouldn’t there be over-the-top character archetypes and bloody bloody murder?
Speaking of which, my biggest disappointment with Stabbed in the Heart is the lack of blood. If there is one thing for which we are set-up, it’s copious amounts of fake blood. Instead, the musical delivers a few spurts of red-tinged water. Where’s the corn syrup?! Where’s the splash zone?! Give us more blood!
The most successful parts of this musical are moments when characters directly acknowledge their ridiculous slasher movie trope behavior with a wink to the audience. Diane (Anne Marie Garcia) and Jeff (Tim Huggenberger) are the most successful duo in this sense, playing the flirty cheerleader and the dumb jock respectively. The funniest song in the show is sung by Garcia and Huggenberger when they decide to have sex at the cabin (and we all know having sex in a horror movie is a terrible idea). Garcia and Huggenberger had me laughing out loud. I wanted more moments like this throughout the musical, instead of heartfelt songs about friendship and overcoming social anxiety. While the numbers are well written, lyrically clever, and melodically memorable, the songs that work better in this context are those which don’t take themselves seriously.
The good ideas in Stabbed in the Heart could also use better production values. For example, each actor carries a handheld microphone in a holster at their hip, which they whip out as a delightful bit of comedy before bursting into song. However, the space is so small that having any microphones seems unnecessary. In a space the size of a large living room, the band and singers are not well balanced in Isaac Mandel‘s sound design, and I wonder if some of those issues could be solved by eliminating mics all together. Perhaps a bigger budget would have helped with the blood issue as well.
I like the idea of Stabbed in the Heart, and there are moments when the comedy gold shines through, but it needs more polishing before I would recommend seeing it. I’ll be keeping an eye out for its next iteration!
photos courtesy of The Factory Theater
Stabbed in the Heart
The Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard St.
a co-production with Lindley and Hall Productions
Thurs-Sat at 8; Sun at 3
(Sept. 19 understudy performance; Sept. 8 accessibility performance)
ends on September 28, 2024
for tickets ($35), call 312.275.5757 or visit The Factory Theater
for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago
