Death Becomes Her is a Killer Good Time at The Fabulous Fox
–by Shannon Mills
I arrived Wednesday night at the Fabulous Fox for the St. Louis premier of “Death Becomes Her” with quiet curiosity. The 1992 cult classic movie had so many special effects and dark humor and I couldn’t wait to see how this would go from screen to stage!
The musical opens with sorceress Viola Van Horn (Nasia Thomas) and her immortals tempting the audience with an elixir of beauty and youth in “If You Want Perfection”. Nasia Thomas slays as the charismatic temptress! Her powerful voice and sultry presence are stunning to behold as are the incredible costumes of the ensemble and Viola.
In the phonetic double entendre “For the Gaze”, we meet the narcissistic actress Madeline Ashton (Jackie Burns) as she explains why she loves the limelight. This was one of my favorite songs in the show. The quick-change dresses of Madeline, the glitzy feathered costumes of the chorus ladies and the men dressed in suits of every color of the rainbow made this a feast for the eyes!
Enter Madeline’s long suffering frenemy Helen Sharp (Kristen Beth Williams). A mousy wallflower and aspiring writer, Helen is excited to finally one up Madeline with the announcement of her engagement. Helen has a complete psychological breakdown which lands her in an institution and leads to her new goal in life…eliminating Madeline. Kristen Beth Williams is masterfully campy in her manic descent and revengeful transformation.
Ten years have passed and Helen has become a published author. She is beautiful, successful and on top of the world. Ernest is regretting his life choices in marrying Madeline while Madeline is struggling with growing older. In a job that hyper fixates on youth, her career is crumbling. Helen, Madeline and Ernest meet at a social party celebrating Helen’s debut novel. There Helen flirts with Ernest and embarrasses Madeline about her age. After the party, Madeline is spiraling in negativity when she is interrupted by Viola offering her an invitation to rejuvenation. Desperate to regain her youth and the adoration of her fans, Madeline buys the elixir and signs the contract explaining the rules of becoming immortal.
Madeline returns home to find Helen with Ernest, Helen, who has been plotting Madeline’s death, is infuriated to find Madeline looks young again and their rivalry hits a breaking point. In the song “Confrontation”, the women verbally spar and finally agree when they sing, “I will die before I let you disrespect me”. Helen pushes Madeline down the stairs. This was one of the special effects that I was wondering how they would recreate and I won’t give it away, but was hilarious and amazingly physical and creative right down to the bone crunching sound effects. Madeline, presumed dead, reanimates. Her neck is broken and twisted completely around (another special effect checked off).
Later when Madeline realizes Helen planned her murder, she grabs a shotgun and shoots Helen outside the house. The shotgun blast blows Helen past the windows and then she shows up at the door with a gaping, smoking hole in her midsection (special effect, check). When she realizes that Helen also drank the immortality elixir the two women devolve into an absurd all-out brawl. This was especially funny because the actresses step out and two men in obvious drag continue the physical fighting. Drag Helen knocks Drag Madeline’s head off and the body stays animated while the real head of actress Kristen Beth Williams rolls back out on stage on top of a silver platter on a cart! (last special effect check) The audience loved it!
Ernest realizes that both women are “undead” and agrees to repair their bodies provided they let him leave afterwards. He proceeds to get completely drunk as he decides how and what he will need to fix them in the song “The Plan”. This was Ken Marino’s moment to shine in the show and shine he did. The singing props were also a clever addition to this song in portraying how drunk Ernest was.
After Ernest cosmetically repairs Helen and Madeline’s bodies, the women realize they will need continual maintenance. They hatch a plan to drug Ernest and take him to Viola where they will give him the elixir of immortality if he will be their eternal mortician.
After a final series of plot twists (You didn’t think I would really give away the ending, did you?) the show ends shortly after one of the ladies says “you wanna get an Imo’s pizza?”, a great nod of locality, indeed.
I completely loved this show! That said, I would say that this production, due to its language and adult themes, lends itself to a more mature audience. I would not bring elementary age children to this musical.
“Death Becomes Her” runs October 13 – 25, 2026. Grab your tickets at the Fabulous Fox website HERE