Zombie Prom is a campy tale of teen angst set in the nuclear 1950’s. The soundtrack has its roots in the 50’s but the playing style on the cast recording has a modern flair. For the first time I was able to focus on more core kit and had very few extra curricular activities to worry about in terms of percussion and special effects.
I used a full, but a slightly smaller kit, than In The Heights. Read on for all the details!
That’s right, our run of Zombie Prom is over and I just wanted to say that I had a great time playing in this show. The music was fun and my fellow musicians were stellar. Did I mention it was just three of us playing in the pit, and one was conducting at the same time?
We knew we had them fooled when someone asked where our guitar player was (hint: inside the keyboard). It was a pleasure sharing the pit with Doug and Sam again, and Sam was a great Musical Director.
A full rig-rundown is on it’s way, but this was (finally) a show where I was able to focus on drumming more than programming my gear. The numbers in Zombie Prom are 50’s-rock based, but don’t let that description fool you, the drum part is very active and has a modern feel. The book is somewhat sparse and I added quite a few notes on how to spice things up to make them more interesting and sound more like the cast recording.
I still think Sam got some sort of sadistic pleasure watching me flail away on his sped-up version of Blast From The Past. That was my workout number! The “I didn’t think we had to do math” award goes to Isn’t It . Playing that 7/8 time signature was like doing calculus at times. Exposé was an exciting and fun change with its Rhumba beat.
All in all, Zombie Prom is a super fun show to play, especially if you go beyond the book.
zazula.me 
