The show examines American ideals and foibles during the era of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a tone that is often parodistic and sometimes genuinely satiric, all following closely the structural form of grade-B space paranoia films that were popular during the 1950s.

Zombies from The Beyond opened to virtually unanimous acclaim from the New York and out of town critics in October 1995 and appeared poised to become a sleeper success.

Often commented upon was the deadpan performing style of the material, which seemed to heighten the humor by playing against camp values, and the surprising score which was not rock and roll, but rather an homage to the adult pop sounds of the 1950s such as Perry Como, Patti Page, and Doris Day.

– as he retrieves orders via mysterious walkie-talkie to slip Charlie a mickey and make contact with the invaders for the greater glory of his homeland ("Big Wig").

Employing her supersonic "Secret Weapon" (a soprano voice so stratospheric that it zombifies), Zombina transforms Rick into a bug-eyed slave to her nefarious demands.

She and her entourage of titillatingly tacky "Zombettes" (originally played by the rest of the cast, decked out in intentionally unconvincing 'disguises') sound the shrill soprano war-cry of "Zombies from The Beyond".

Zombina's tirade of terror has the city on pins and needles ("Dateline: Milwaukee"), yet Trenton and Mary are able to terminate their tiff ("Second Planet Reprise").

Our heroes plan to implement Trenton's newly developed 'amplificator' against subversive enemies, singing gaily: "Don't just hate 'em, exterminate 'em, that's "The American Way!"

Zombina, fed up with Rick's inability to perform up to her high standards, resolves to employ her considerable wiles in perpetrating her perverse ploys ("The Last Man on Earth").

All appears lost until good old Billy arrives and joins forces with the girls by adding his Geiger-counter tap-dancing to their raucous roundelay, resulting in the hideous demise of Zombina whose formerly formidable voice drops a couple octaves (She bewails: "What a world!

With keen-eyed skill to spare, it manages to spoof everything that characterized the old science-fiction B-movies, from cheesy spaceships (with visible wires and erratic flight paths that send them bumping into the sets) to cheap weaponry (an 'amplificator' whose base is an Electrolux vacuum cleaner), stilted language ('apprehensive'), Cold War paranoia, condescension toward women and utter conviction in the infallibility of the United States.

And there is even one number, "The American Way," that might have been penned by that half-savage Harvard 1950s satirist, Tom Lehrer, with its comment aimed at our nation's enemies: 'Don't just hate 'em, exterminate 'em.'

The plot may be silly, but when was the last time you heard a line with the literary overtones of 'Never again will the stars glitter anonymously in the fabric of night like so many sequins on a drape'?