About the show
The setting is Nixonville U S of A. A serial killer is on the rampage. He’s been nick-named The Waterman, because of his predilection for killing girls in water. In the frenzy of local hysteria popular cheerleader Beverly Mantle is ostracized, partly because there is a rumour that she is somehow involved in the murders, and partly because of her OCD which means she can only have sex after taking a bath. In the time honoured tradition of all good horror stories it’s inevitable that Beverly and The Waterman will come face to face and there will be ... A Bloodbath! Comically black, politically incorrect, Bloodbath the Musical is a quirky rock-horror show featuring songs such as Serial Killer, Mutilation Sensation and The Chair Is Fair.
If you’re expecting Ibsen you’re going to be disappointed.
Bloodbath was originally conceived as a story strand in the ten part horror/thriller TV serial Headless for C5. The serial, transmitted in 2000/2001, was written and directed by Tony McHale and produced by Sanctuary Films. The critics either loved it or hated it … which is the way it should be. …. ‘Just when television seemed to be disappearing into an abyss of predictability, along comes something so outlandish, … it almost seems worth staying in on Friday night…’ The Guardian loved it.
In the TV version Bloodbath was presented as a parody of a ‘West End’ style musical, but when it was decided to turn it into a fully fledged stage show, the parody idea became a …. ‘one trick pony ……’ and so the rock version came into being. After a number of false starts McHale eventually teamed up with composers Young and Maguire and Bloodbath came to life.
June 2006 an hour long workshop was performed at what was then The Venue Theatre in Leicester Square, with Frances Ruffelle as Beverley Mantle, Chris Thatcher as Billy Vail, Siobhan McCarthy as Ellie Mantle and Ben Richards as Bud Carver. Then after more work on the script an 80 minute version ran for a month at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival.