In Death Becomes Her, the main characters kill each other multiple times … for laughs! Robert Zemeckis’ 1992 film is a cult classic; its stage adaptation — with a book by Marco Pennette and lyrics and music by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey — is a delightfully unhinged musical that I knew needed the Tiny Desk treatment. But If you’re wondering if the performers re-create any of the physical comedy gags in the NPR Music office, you’ll have to head to the theater.
Mattison and Carey were on hand to shepherd the Tiny Desk audience through the world they helped create. Michelle Williams (of Destiny’s Child fame) plays Viola Van Horn, the potion slinging sorceress, with enticing mystique; she performs “If You Want Perfection” and reminds us that actions have consequences in the grooving “Don’t Say I Didn’t (Warn You).” In “Tell Me, Ernest,” Megan Hilty (Madeline Ashton), Jennifer Simard (Helen Sharp) and Christopher Sieber (Dr. Ernest Menville) bring the weird and competitive love triangle of their characters to life (with a memorable appearance from Josh Lamon). Despite the fact their characters’ “hatred escalated into murder” a few times, Hilty and Simard showcase their dysfunctional and codependent love for each other in the show’s 11 o’clock number, “Alive Together.”
SET LIST
- “If You Want Perfection”
- “Tell Me, Ernest”
- “Alive Forever”
- “Don’t Say I Didn’t (Warn You)”
MUSICIANS
- Michelle Williams: vocals
- Jennifer Simard: vocals
- Megan Hilty: vocals
- Christopher Sieber: vocals
- Noel Carey: keys, background vocals
- Julia Mattison: cowbell, background vocals
- Dillon Kondor: guitar
- Rob Jost: bass
- Ben Cohn: keys
- Damien Bassman: drums
- Josh Lamon: background vocals
- Taurean Everett: background vocals
- Ximone Rose: background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Mitra I. Arthur
- Director/Editor: Kara Frame
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Alanté Serene, Nikki Birch
- Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
- Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Michael Zamora
- Tiny Desk Team: Joshua Bryant, Lars Gotrich
- Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins