Romero project realized in NYC
Around the great zombie craze of ’04-’05 you might remember rumblings of a new George Romero project called Diamond Dead. The project teamed the undead godfather with The Rock Horror Picture Show‘s Richard Hartley and promised to be an audacious mix of rock ‘n roll and horror.
As Land of the Dead got rolling, Romero Diamond Dead was put on the back burner and things have been quiet since then.
The Landless Theatre Company of Washington, DC is picking up the torch and taking Diamond Dead to the stage. Landless joins the 2009 NYC Fringe with the zombie rock musical. The play is based on a screenplay by Brian Cooper, and was the winner of the 2008 Capital Fringe Festival Best Musical Pick of The Fringe.
“Since we started development in 2004 to this date, horror fans still eagerly await developments in production of a George A. Romero directed Diamond Dead film,” said book writer and performer Andrew Lloyd Baughman. “But our little rock show lives on at New York Fringe! It has been an incredible journey to develop this unique and bizarre piece, and the best part has been meeting audiences full of kindred freaks everywhere we go who share our love for the music and the ridiculousness of it all.”
The internationally based creative team includes Hartley, Cooper, Baughman and Andrew Gaty, the Los Angeles-based film producer of Diamond Dead.
Diamond Dead centers around a lame-ass garage band that died in a “tragic subwoofer accident,” only to be resurrected as cannibal zombies through a special arrangement with Death. Preying on the public’s thirst for the unusual and unknown, the band uses their “undead” status to achieve rock superstardom (and a few meals along the way).
In 2008, the production was voted Best Musical Pick of the Capital Fringe Festival. The zombies will return to the 2009 Capital Fringe for a quick snack before the NYC Fringe premiere in August.
For more details, visit DeadRockProductions.com.
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
