Blue Sunshine screens the Buffy musical: Top 5 slayer songs and sing-alongs

Break out your best wooden stake and warm up your vocal cords, because the hardcore cinephiles at Blue Sunshine are about to screen the sing-along episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On Thursday, October 20, Montreal’s psychotronic film center and home of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies will feature Once More, With Feeling, the musical episode from Buffy's sixth season. Buffy fans and their ilk are invited to sing along with a collection of tunes written and composed by vampire slayer creator Joss Whedon. Amidst a pop culture reference to Yma Sumac, dancing demons, and an interlude about the evil potential of bunnies, Once More, With Feeling is an ode to the musical genre. At the same time, it pokes fun at the absurdity of people who just break out into song, and it contains a scene where a bystander sings an earnest ballad about getting a parking ticket.

To get you in the mood for some Buffy sing-alongs at Blue Sunshine, here’s a list of other musicals that veer away from traditional fare.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Like Troll 2, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a ‘sequel’ that doesn’t really have anything to do with its original. The 1970 film follows fictional, all-female rock band The Kelly Affair as they depart from their hometown to find fame and fortune in Hollywood. While this might seem straightforward, the flick’s director is cult deity Russ Myers, purveyor of busty broads and sexualized mayhem. Though Myers’ usual muse is vigilante heroine Tura Satana, the script for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls bares the penmanship of none other than Roger Ebert. The film’s music is actually quite catchy, borrowing from the up-tempo palate of girl-groups from the 60s. Visually, it’s all ass, grass, polyester, and more ass. Throw in some sword-wielding mincing dandies, and you’ve got yourself a cult classic.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Nightman Cometh
During their fourth season finale, the depraved and amoral gang of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia stage one of the greatest productions in the history of absurdist musical theatre. Charlie, the show’s wild-card character, writes and produces a musical with the help of his boozing buddies, who all have some sort of sociopathic or egocentric tendencies. The production turns into a big, brilliant shit-show, complete with karate moves, cat-eye contact lenses, a dress that looks like it belongs to the princess in Super Mario Brothers 2, and songs about buggery. If David Bowie and Julie Andrews had a Spiders from Mars/Sound of Music lovechild and supplied it with coke cans full of amphetamines, you’d get The Nightman Cometh.

The Haunted Hillbilly
In 2009, Montreal’s SideMart Theatrical Grocery premiered their musical adaptation of Derek McCormack’s book The Haunted Hillbilly. The play is remarkable in its ability to meld humour, music, and cannibalism. Thanks to a stellar cast, and an infectious selection of songs courtesy of Matthew Barber and Graham Cuthbertson, McCormack’s top-notch American gothic tale of obsessive desire receives a faithful treatment on stage. With a musical aesthetic akin to Hank Williams and lyrical content that nods to Nick Cave, you can tap your feet to songs about biological human matter and arts’n’crafts! Lucky for you, SideMart will reprise its production of The Haunted Hillbilly in May 2012 at the Centaur Theatre.

Peaches Christ Superstar
In one of the stranger moments from the world of musical theatre, Peaches tackled Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Perhaps more eyebrow-raising was the fact that Peaches wanted to perform the entire play solo, singing all of the alongside pianist/accompanist Chilly Gonzales. Without the grandiose Webber backdrops and costumes, and without the raucous sexual energy of a regular Peaches gig, the show was simple but effective. Peaches toured the production with limited engagements in North America and Europe, where she received critical acclaim for her reimagining of the Broadway classic.