Kill Sister, Kill! A Musical tells the story of avenging angel Lily (Samantha Walkes), a nun who upon witnessing the brutal rape and murder of her sister Kitty (Astrid Atherly) takes it upon herself to seek justice. Deeming itself an “homage” to exploitation films, the musical by Drac and Jamieson Child (featuring music by Michael Zahorak and lyrics by David Bakshell) is nothing but a confused pastiche that borrows the excessive vulgarity and crassness of the genre, and pairs it with the earnestness of musical theatre. Therefore we hear songs like “Good Evening Bitches” performed by leather-clad thugs who are as intimidating as the sailors in On the Town. The lack of urgency not only hurts the show’s ability to help us suspend our disbelief, it also makes its flaws all the more obvious, instead of “enjoying” the genre nods, we find ourselves disgusted by the constant mentions of semen, rape and myriad curse words that feel out of place because they’re used more as embellishments than as essential parts of the work.
The ensemble is rather serviceable and Walkes and Atherly deliver performances that for all their stereotypes manage to be quite moving; however the show hits a rougher spot when it comes to its male characters, particularly the shy Ronnie (Thomas Finn) and his demonic brother Dagger (Aaron Williams) the perpetrators behind the central murder. While the snake-like Dagger is always lusting for violence and sex regardless of who is in the receiving end (there is a recurring joke about how he might very well be secretly gay), Ronnie is pushed to crime, and when he slashes a woman’s throat we are still somehow supposed to root for him in the second act.
The second act itself is quite problematic because the entire act before it feels like too long an exposition. When all along we know that we’re going to get an avenging, singing nun, the plot takes too long to get there, and then wraps everything up too quickly denying us the opportunity to get to know any of the characters. The show is often too loud and self-important which inevitably leads it to get wrong what exploitation films got so right: the fact that their luridness was their entire point, not their path towards any larger purpose.
