Landless Theatre Company’s Evil Librarian: A New Musical deserves more attention than it has been getting.
Perhaps it has been flying under the radar because Landless is, as its name implies, a company without a permanent home, currently performing in the Writer’s Center on a shoestring. Perhaps it is because, despite garnering three Helen Hayes Award nominations for its innovative production of Sweeney Todd with progressive-rock orchestrations, it still seems relatively little known. Or perhaps it is because of the show’s tongue-in-cheek, cheesy title.
But the work has a pedigree worth paying attention to. It is based on a popular Young Adult book series by the New York Times best-selling author Michelle Knudsen, with a book by Dramatists Guild member Jillian Blevins and music and lyrics by Landless Producing Artistic Director Andrew Lloyd Baughman, who orchestrated and starred in the prog rock musical Sweeney.
The first song, “High School Is Hell,” does portend a mashup of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Heathers. But when the main character, Cyn (Jillian Dove) begins her “I want” song, “Waiting in the Wings,” interest picks up. The element that elevates this show above the standard haunted high school trope is that Cyn is a theater kid, and the show is absolutely stuffed with references to musicals, in both the script and the score. One of the best running jokes is that whenever Cyn meets a demon (it’s amusing that the character opposing the demons is named “Sin”) and mentions the show the school is putting on, the hell fiend immediately enthuses, “Oh, all Demons love Sweeney Todd!”).
Even more interesting, Cyn is not a spotlight-seeker; she is a techie, and not just any techie but the Technical Director and Stage Manager. It is terrific to see this confused and alienated high schooler (aren’t they all?) morph into this figure of authority and magic, who can solve any problem on the fly and create any prop or set piece. In the course of the show, it becomes apparent that she has a special immunity to the powers of the Demons, and it hints at one of the cardinal rules of theater: from tech week on, the Stage Manager is essentially God.
One of the most creative tropes of the show is that Cyn is not only the main character in the show, but she is also calling the cues for the show. (At least most of them — consistency is not Evil Librarian’s strongest suit. For instance, if Cyn is the stage manager calling the show, how do scene and lighting changes happen when she is unconscious? Or if Cyn touching the Librarian sets off a sort of electrical repulsion, how can he lead her in a pas de deux later in the show…? But of course, in a world full of soul-slurping demons, logic is not the ruling principle.)
The show would benefit from a bigger budget (as what off-Broadway show wouldn’t?). Brenna St. Ours’s set, such as it is, is imaginative, with turning and swinging flats on each side of the stage flipping from school hallways to the neon-lit depths of hell, but that, along with some black blocks for furniture, is it.
The voices of the younger actors — Rachel Johnson as Cyn’s best friend and the demon’s would-be bride, Leo Dalton as her crush-then-boyfriend — although good, and pleasing on the harmonies, are somewhat thin, and might be helped by amplification. It would have been nice to be able to hear more clearly Sophie Ellison and Chloe Ellen Stewart as two other students, Leticia and Diane, in their very funny number in which they relive every spat they’ve ever had while insisting that friends “Get Over It.” The cast’s acting, especially the humor, hits the mark.
But then come the more experienced actors. Jack Benedict, as Mr. Gabriel, makes a compelling and funny Librarian, although some of his gyrations in his big introductory number, “Check Me Out,” verge ever so slightly toward what the kids today call “cringe.” In later numbers, such as “Super Roach” and “Let’s Make a Deal,” he is much more suave and menacing.
Andrew Lloyd Baughman, clearly the driving force behind the show, shows his power as Signor DeLuca, the Quixotic Italian teacher, and even more as the Demon Principal, Mr. Kingston.
But the real gem worth waiting for is Jessica Cooperstock as Ms. Kralovna. Wasted in the first act in a walk-on part as the school principal, she ignites the stage as the female demon Ms. Kralovna. (Jacob Rudland is very funny as her helpless slave, Aaron.) Her voice soars and growls without need of amplification, her glamorous physical presence is effortlessly electrifying, and her movements and mannerisms are mesmerizing. It is vexing that we could not have had her hexing earlier.
When these Demons join in the trio “School Redistricting,” circling around each other, not knowing who is going to betray whom, the show really shines.
Although Evil Librarian is far from deep, the plot, music, and harmonies are complex enough to hold one’s interest, the musical easter eggs are a treat, and there are lovely messages about the importance of friendship, female empowerment, and how theater makes high school hell survivable.
Evil Librarian deserves to rise again and ensnare more audiences with its goofy charm.
Running Time: Approximately two hours with a 10-minute intermission
Evil Librarian plays through June 21, 2026, presented by Landless Theatre Company, performing at the Writers Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD. Tickets for the final performance are sold out.
