When I first saw the flyer for Z-Town on State Street, I was concerned, but cautiously optimistic. ‘Sing, Dance, Love, Death, Brains’ as a tagline provides ammunition both for fears of Anti-Zombie stereotyping and for hope that the production would rise above casual pigeonholing of the Differently Animated (ala Romero, Kirkman, Brooks, etc)

So which was it? Thankfully, the latter. In fact, ‘Z-Town’ is a complex, nuanced examination of Zombie-Living relations. ‘Z-Town’ asks its audience to look at the big picture, at the Zombie Community as a class engaged in the struggle for economic, political and legal equality; it also never loses sight of the smaller scale, personal stories of those people from both the Living and Zombie camps involved in said struggle.

And the songs are pretty catchy too! Always a good thing in a musical.

‘Z-Town’ takes place, as one might imagine from the title, in a segregated, as well as fenced-in, Zombie Community. The clever program guide (fashioned to resemble a high school newspaper) informs us that Z-Town originated after the discovery of a reanimation virus in the 1930s created a small underclass of the Differently Animated. Initially subjected to abusive medical experimentation, Zombies became a brief cause célèbre after World War II, and so they were given a homeland of sorts in the form of an isolated American town. The government agreed to supply Z-Town with human flesh as needed to fulfill the dietary needs of the Zombies so long as they remained peaceful and avoided attention from either the media or redress and financial compensation for past abuses from the legal system.

In other words, they swept the issue under the rug, secure in the knowledge that public attention is usually short-lived and fickle.

Many years later, Z-Town thrives, after a fashion, but the neighboring Living communities have grown restless and constantly patrol the borders hoping for an excuse to hunt Zombies. Within the Zombie Community, a younger militant faction also agitates to disrupt the status quo, hoping acts of violence and, yes, even murder will provoke a conflict that the small population of Zombies could win.

Which just goes to show that you shouldn’t follow the military strategy of teenagers.

The plot really gets going when town leader and scientist Dr. GreenBlad (one of the show’s standout characters/performances) hatches a plan to recruit the outside world’s foremost expert in reanimation research to assist him in his work at the town’s government sponsored lab; thus the first-ever Living family moves into Z-Town. One small problem: none of them know that Zombies exist, and have all bought into the cover story that Z-Town is a leper colony. Researcher Scott, his devoted social activist wife Claudia and son Zack will now be at the center of a tumultuous period of change for the Zombie enclave, without even realizing it existed before moving in.

I won’t spoil the story by telling you what happens next. Not even a little.

‘Z-Town’ hits on so many touchy subjects: Zombie-Living relationships, including romance, the need for human flesh provisions, the government’s haphazard responses to the Differently Animated Community, even Zombie militancy, all without demagoguing the Undead. There are also numerous subtle references and criticisms of Anti-Zombie elements in the culture at large to get the attention of Zombie Rights fans (particularly, look for the Zombie-hating sheriff of Mann-Town, a remarkable spoof of the persistent small town Sheriff authority figure seen in so many Romero and Romero-inspired films).

Even the militant Zombie faction, who very much want to engage in Anti-Living mayhem, are treated with empathy and compassion. Their leader, a Zombie named Brent, is an angry young man. He carries an enormous chip on his shoulder from his own father’s attempt to murder him when he came back to Unlife, and wants revenge on, essentially, the whole Living world for not dying, and, even worse, being abandoned the way he was.

Obviously the Zombie Rights Campaign does not endorse said militancy and believes the best path toward reconciliation of the Zombie and Living Communities is through peaceful dialogue, but it was very refreshing to see the issue of potential Zombie-Living violence explored in this manner. One rarely sees a discussion of the politics and psychology that might lead, understandably, to enormous frustration on the part of the Differently Animated, even violence.

It’s a tragic scenario, and one we hope to prevent as much as humanly possible.

In summary, Z-Town vastly exceeded the ZRC’s expectations, and indeed serves as a proud and shining example of the new possibilities in Zombie Theatre. As I observed on Twitter, perhaps the best way to describe Z-Town is as the Zombie Les Miserables, a sweeping story of the people and personalities caught up in a perilous and violent, though hopeful, period of change.

We can only hope it achieves similar longevity and popularity.

‘Z-Town: The Zombie Musical’ receives our highest recommendation and can officially carry a ‘Zombie Friendly’ rating from the ZRC.

‘Z-Town: The Zombie Musical’ is wrapping up its run today at the Bartell Theatre here in Madison. Two shows left today! See it if you can!

Tags: Zombie Theatre, ZRC Reviews

This entry was posted by John Sears on Saturday, October 15th, 2011 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.