Though Jeffrey Combs' role as Herbert West in the original Re-Animator has earned heaps of praise over the years, there are of course other memorable performances in the film – chief among them that of the late David Gale as Dr. Carl Hill, the brilliant twisted brain surgeon and Miskatonic University professor who lusts after West's re-animation serum – and Dean Halsey's nubile daughter Meg. In the new Re-Animator: The Musical (which just had its initial run at LA's Steve Allen Theatre extended through May 29), Hill is reinterpreted by theater star Jesse Merlin (who played the U.S. President in the popular The Beastly Bombing). With his booming operatic voice and hilariously arch line readings, Merlin delivers a performance as memorable and outrageous as the arterial spray that soaks the audience throughout the play. I chatted with Merlin recently about his approach to Re-Animator: The Musical, his love for the original film, and how some of its deleted scenes served as inspiration for his take on Hill. Check out our conversation after the jump.

Were you a fan of the original Re-Animator?

Well of course! Since I was a teenager. So it was a real thrill to come into it.

Your Hill is a little different from the film's. His interest in Meg is a little more overt, and a more prominent component in the story.

He's got more text for one thing, because of all the songs. And the songs allow you to see what's happening inside the characters emotionally.

But I'm a huge fan. It's very intimidating for me to do a role that such a great actor like David Gale has made so iconic. For me it's like trying to approach a Vincent Price performance. It's on that level. All of the key moments, the iconic stuff that people are going to expect, you have to be true to that. And you don't want to deviate from it; you want to do it the way people are going to expect. Some things are gonna be different. He was a couple of inches taller than me. I'm six feet, but he was like six-three. And his face is different. But I brought as much of his energy as I could while still trying not to do it imitatively. But I definitely wanted it to be kind of an homage.

One of the things I tried to bring into it – and Stuart didn't want me to play it up so heavily… One of the deleted parts of the story is his mesmeric power over the characters. You kind of see hints of it in the final cut where he's just staring at Meg on the gurney and she kind of quiets down. So it was subtle, but I wanted to bring some kind of a sense of him having a power over people, particularly with Meg and with West and with Dean Halsey.

Can you talk about the tone or pitch you wanted to play – how arch you wanted to make Hill, and how you approached the fluctuations between humor and horror?

The movie, and Stuart's theatrical style of directing from his theater background, is very gritty and very realistic, and very real. It's very bloody. He was famous for doing very gruesome shows for much of the time in Chicago. But when you transform something into a musical it necessarily becomes just a little bit lighter, at least in the songs, and has a different quality to it.

So the direction was never entirely, "Oh, we're going to do this with complete realism and no humor. " For me it's about finding the truth of the character. His whole core, particularly in the second act, is how badly he wants Meg. And the minute Halsey's out of the picture, that's all he cares about. What's so great for him as a character to play is that once he gets decapitated it's like he's been liberated. It actually frees him and his true nature can come out. There's nothing standing in his way anymore.

Do you have a favorite musical number?

I love the scene with West in the basement where I get decapitated, because it's an illusion. I think the most gratifying thing was, one night, when my eyes open, when he's tapping with a pencil on my head, there were people in the audience gasping because they didn't realize there was a switch. Which is really great. And it's hard for people. They don't always realize that there's somebody else playing my decapitated torso, and my head is under the table. A lot of people can't figure out how I'm able to walk and carry my own head, how that works; or if there's one person or two. So I love the magic side of it. The second act is just all gravy. He's just such a wonderful character.

Well your performance has been drawing a lot of praise. Thank you very much.

Thank you! My pleasure.