Remember Diamond Dead? The Rock Zombie flick that Romero was working on that went nowhere? Well it seems it is very much alive still.. in the form of a musical. The Landless Theatre Company of Washington, DC, joins the 2009 NYC Fringe with 'Diamond Dead', the zombie rock musical by Emmy winning composer Richard Hartley (‘Rocky Horror,’ ‘Alice In Wonderland’). The play is based on a screenplay by Brian Cooper ('Nymph'), 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'.

“Ordinarily we would have never looked at Washington as an outlet for this experiment,” said Gaty in 2004. “But when Landless Theatre approached us with their ideas, we all thought ‘Why not?‘ It has the potential to be as original and unique and different as 'Rocky Horror' was in its day.”

‘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).

Equal parts ‘Spinal Tap’ concert and haunted house, Diamond Dead invokes a deadpan homage to zombie pop culture and politics driven by a hard rock score. The audience becomes part of every show, feeding into the mania.

The original Landless production was presented at DCAC in 2004, where it developed a local cult following. Surrounded by controversy involving depiction of a “pot smoking Jesus,” ‘Diamond Dead’ also spurred an online petition to ban the play by UK Christian Activist Scott Morrison, and an online debate between Morrison and Baughman.

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.

The New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC
A production of The Present Company
August 14th - 30th
Tickets: $15. For tickets visit http://www.FringeNYC.org
Visit www.landlesstheatrecompany.org for more information.

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