Musicals

Frankenstein: The Musical; Book & Lyrics Jeffrey Jackson, Music by Mark Baron, Original Story Adaptation by Gary P. Cohen

With earnest ballads and soaring ensemble numbers, this compelling musical brings the suspense and romance of the classic tale to life in a uniquely faithful, yet thoroughly innovative adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original novel. In his quest to discover the secret of life, Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist, creates a human of his own design that turns out to instead be a horrifying beast. This is no “Hollywood monster,” but a flesh-and-blood man who, while terrifying in appearance, grows to become articulate, cunning, and thirsting for revenge upon the creator who abandoned him. A tragic love story and exploration of humanity, Frankenstein: The Musical breathes new life into the world-renowned story of man and creator pitted against one another in epic battle.

Bat Boy: The Musical; Written by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, Music & Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe

2023 Pelham Memorial High School production

Based on a story in The Weekly World News, Bat Boy: The Musical is a musical comedy/horror show about a half boy/half bat creature who is discovered in a cave near Hope Falls, West Virginia. For lack of a better solution, the local sheriff brings Bat Boy to the home of the town veterinarian, Dr. Parker, where he is eventually accepted as a member of the family and taught to act like a “normal” boy by the veterinarian’s wife, Meredith, and teenage daughter, Shelley. Bat Boy is happy with his new life, but when he naively tries to fit in with the narrow-minded people of Hope Falls, they turn on him, prodded by the machinations of Dr. Parker, who secretly despises Bat Boy. Shelley and Bat Boy, who have fallen in love, run away together from the ignorant townfolk and have a blissful coupling in the woods, but their happiness is shattered when Meredith arrives and reveals a secret. Soon the entire town arrives and hears the shocking story of Bat Boy’s unholy origin.

Plays

Broadway Book Club Limited Edition: Stage Frights

Celebrate spooky season with these delightfully scary and eerie plays. From an unsettling stage adaptation of The Birds by Conor McPherson to the modern-day noir of BLOODSHOT, these stories from Rajiv Joseph, Joe DiPietro, and more are not for the faint of heart!

Jackie Lantern’s Hallowe’en Revenge by Burton Cohen

It’s Hallowe’en night and trouble’s brewing on the porch of a “typical” American farmhouse, where a jack-o’-lantern named “Jackie” glows and flickers diabolically. Mother and Father, daughter Betsy, and son Tom, are getting ready for a local masquerade party when the Sheriff arrives with bad news. He’s been sent to the farmhouse to find out “whodunnit,” even though he isn’t sure what it is the culprit “dun.” The family is immediately wracked with guilt, certain that one of them has committed a heinous crime. Mother and Father suspect that Tom is the guilty party, and attempt to drown him. Then Mother tries to wing Betsy with a shotgun. And Father, aping the investigations he’s seen in the movies, persuades the others into making lurid confessions, including, finally, Mother’s tortured admission that “I did it and I’m glad!” What she did, it turns out, was to find Betsy and Tom in a sack at the train station many years before, and to claim that they were her own children. Her revelation throws the family into a frenzy of remorse and regret that ends only when the Sheriff receives word that he’s at the wrong farmhouse, and that no one here “dun” anything after all. Relieved that their ordeal is over, the family heads off at last for the masquerade party, with Betsy dressed as a pregnant prom queen, and Tom decked out in high heels and a dress—while “Jackie” glows ever more brightly (and maniacally) in the descending darkness.

Rough Magic by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Transplanting characters from The Tempest to present-day New York, Rough Magic is a Shakespearean action-adventure-fantasy in the tradition of Harry Potter and The X-Men that conjures a mythical, magical meta-universe in which the evil sorcerer Prospero is willing to do anything to recover his stolen book of magic—even if it means Manhattan’s destruction. Lucky for us, New York’s defenders include a quartet of unlikely heroes: Melanie Porter, a plucky, raven-haired dramaturg with the ability to free characters from plays; Caliban, Prospero’s hunky (though not-too-bright) son; Tisiphone, a revenge-seeking Fury from Ancient Greece; and a seventeen-year-old lifeguard from Coney Island named Chet Baxter. May the forces of evil beware…

Night Watch by Lucille Fletcher

Unable to sleep, Elaine Wheeler paces the living room of her Manhattan townhouse, troubled by unsettling memories and vague fears. Her husband tries to comfort her, but when he steps away for a moment Elaine screams as she sees (or believes she sees) the body of a dead man in the window across the way. The police are called, but find nothing except an empty chair. Elaine’s terror grows as shortly thereafter she sees still another body—this time a woman’s—but by now the police are skeptical and pay no heed to her frantic pleas. Her husband, claiming that Elaine may be on the verge of a breakdown, calls in a lady psychiatrist, who agrees with his suggestion that Elaine should commit herself to a sanitarium for treatment. From this point on, the plot moves quickly and grippingly as those involved—Elaine’s old friend and house guest Blanche; the inquisitive and rather sinister man who lives next door; and the nosy German maid Helga—all contribute to the deepening suspense and mystery of the play as it draws towards its riveting and chilling climax.

Clue: On Stage adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, written by Sandy Rustin, additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price

Joan Marcus, 2017 Bucks County Playhouse production

Based on the Paramount Pictures Motion Picture based on the Hasbro board game CLUE.

Based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie which was inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth–the butler, Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up. Clue is the comedy whodunit that will leave both cult-fans and newcomers in stitches as they try to figure out…WHO did it, WHERE, and with WHAT!

A High School Edition of the play is available here.

Misery by William Goldman, based on the novel by Stephen King

Sara Krulwich, 2015 Broadway production

Misery follows successful romance novelist Paul Sheldon, who is rescued from a car crash by his “number one fan,” Annie Wilkes, and wakes up captive in her secluded home. While Paul is convalescing, Annie reads his latest book and becomes enraged when she discovers the author has killed off her favorite character, Misery Chastain. Annie forces Paul to write a new Misery novel, and he quickly realizes Annie has no intention of letting him go anywhere. The irate Annie has Paul writing as if his life depends on it, and it does.

Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher

Photo by T Charles Erickson, 2022 Dorset Theatre production

Forty-seven years after Wait Until Dark premiered on Broadway, Jeffrey Hatcher has adapted Frederick Knott’s 1966 original, giving it a new setting. In 1944 Greenwich Village, Susan Hendrix, a blind yet capable woman, is imperiled by a trio of men in her own apartment. As the climax builds, Susan discovers that her blindness just might be the key to her escape, but she and her tormentors must wait until dark to play out this classic thriller’s chilling conclusion.

Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott

A sinister con man, Roat, and two ex-convicts, Mike and Carlino, are about to meet their match. They have traced the location of a mysterious doll, which they are much interested in, to the Greenwich Village apartment of Sam Hendrix and his blind wife, Susy. Sam had apparently been persuaded by a strange woman to transport the doll across the Canadian border, not knowing that sewn inside were several grams of heroin. When the woman is murdered the situation becomes more urgent. The con man and his ex-convicts, through a cleverly constructed deception, convince Susy that the police have implicated Sam in the woman’s murder, and the doll, which she believes is the key to his innocence, is evidence. She refuses to reveal its location, and with the help of a young neighbor, figures out she is the victim of a bizarre charade. But when Roat kills his associates, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues between the two. Susy knows the only way to play fair is by her rules, so when darkness falls she turns off all the lights leaving both of them to maneuver in the dark until the game ends.

Quills by Doug Wright

Doctor Royer-Collard, head of Charenton Asylum, is visited by Renee Pelagie, wife of the asylum’s most notorious inmate, the Marquis de Sade. Furious that her husband’s sadomasochistic pornography has tarnished her reputation, she offers the Doctor any amount of money, if only her husband can be kept from writing. After confiscating the Marquis’ quills and paper, the Abbe de Coulmier is surprised to find lascivious new stories circulating in public. The source? A lusty young seamstress named Madeleine has been smuggling material out of the asylum. Immediately, the Abbe bars the girl from seeing the Marquis, but ever resourceful, the Marquis pens his stories on his bedclothes in wine, blood and worse. Driven to a fury, the Abbe strips bare the Marquis and his cell, leaving nothing but stone and straw. Undaunted, the Marquis devises a fantastic plan to whisper his stories from lunatic to lunatic, until Madeleine can pen them down—but the last lunatic, in whose cell Madeleine crouches, mutilates and kills the girl in response to the Marquis’ grisly tale. A riot ensues, nearly destroying the asylum, and as the second act unfolds, the Abbe is driven to increasingly desperate acts to silence the Marquis: the removal of his hands, feet, genitals and eventually his beheading. Wracked by guilt, the once humane but now murderous and sexually deviant Abbe is committed to his own asylum where he finds himself crying out for a paper and pen with which to record his own newly arisen perversions. In the last scene, the boxes containing the body parts of the Marquis tremble with pleasure. One hand snakes loose from its box…and begins to write.

Unwrap Your Candy: An Evening of One-Act Plays by Doug Wright

From the author of Quills comes a deliciously macabre collection of four short plays. Alternately chilling and hilarious, Unwrap Your Candy is a delectable evening of bedtime tales for adults guaranteed to keep you awake for nights on end. Inspired in equal parts by Alfred Hitchcock, Roald Dahl and The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, UNWRAP YOUR CANDY boasts a versatile cast of five and minimal production requirements. Together, the plays examine the danger of being a child, the terror of being an adult and even the perils of being an unsuspecting audience member. Spine-tinglers for the twenty-first century, the collected one acts in Unwrap Your Candy are guaranteed to jolt the senses and stimulate the mind.

In the title play, Unwrap Your Candy, five actors portray actual members of the theatre audience and prove far more intriguing than the play they’ve come to watch. (3 men, 2 women.)

In Lot 13: The Bone Violin, a stunning young violin prodigy skyrockets to international prominence, only to meet a shocking and supernatural fate. (3 men, 2 women.)

In Wildwood Park, a neurotic real-estate agent shows a house filled with unspeakable secrets to a potential buyer who harbors an almost insatiable thirst for tabloid atrocities. (1 man, 1 woman.)

And in Baby Talk, a woman is unwound when her precocious baby begins to speak early while still inside her womb. (3 men, 1 woman.)

All Because of Agatha by Jonathan Troy

Being a cartoonist, Duff O’Hara can live where he chooses and, at the urging of his young bride, Joan, this turns out to be historic Salem, Massachusetts. They are both taken by the charming old house that is shown to them; although Duff evinces misgivings when the real estate man reluctantly admits that the house has one rather bizarre feature which has discouraged previous tenants from staying on—it is visited each year by a slightly destructive witch named Agatha Forbes. But Joan wants the house, witch and all, so they settle in. Things go so well that by the time Agatha’s annual visitation is due Duff and Joan decide to make a party of it, and hopefully a farewell one for Agatha. Joan’s Aunt Thelma comes to visit in time for the festivities for which the next door neighbors, Dr. Randolph and his mother (a medium who calls herself Madame La Solda), are also invited. Inasmuch as Agatha is a local legend the newspaper sends its star reporter, Flip Cannon, along to cover the affair, but the atmosphere of gaiety soon vanishes when the witch herself arrives in a cloud of smoke and bad temper. Impatient from the outset, Agatha makes no bones about the fact that she wants everyone out of the house, although she does mellow to the extent of admitting that if she had a choice she would rather forego her enforced yearly visits and stay wherever it is witches live out eternity. She even goes along with Madame La Solda’s occult attempts to dissolve the commitment that binds her, but when this fails Agatha loses patience and repeats her evacuation order. As no one will cooperate, she then exercises her special powers and casts a spell which, to every one’s dismay, makes them actually become, temporarily, as they secretly wish themselves to be. The results are uproarious. But Joan, fortunately, keeps her wits about her and solves the riddle of how to free Agatha from her house-haunting obligation—which she does in the nick of time and to the relief of all.

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh

Photo by Johan Persson, 2023 Duke of York’s Theatre production

With echoes of Stoppard, Kafka, and the Brothers Grimm, The Pillowman centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent work of theatrical bravura and an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art.

The Turn of the Screw by Jeffrey Hatcher, from the story by Henry James

Based on the provocative tale of suspense, horror and repressed sexuality, this adaptation gives the famous story yet another turn of its own. A young governess journeys to a lonely English manor house to care for two recently orphaned children. But she is not their first governess. Her predecessor, Miss Jessel, drowned herself when she became pregnant by the sadistic valet, Peter Quint, who was himself found dead soon after under mysterious circumstances. Now the new governess has begun to see the specters of Quint and Jessel haunting the children, and she must find a way to stop the fiends before it is too late. But one frightening question tortures the would-be heroine: Are the ghosts real, or are they the product of her own fevered imagination?

Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher

A mystery thriller, the tale of a neurotic invalid, whose only contact with the outside world is her phone. Over this, one night, because of a crossed wire, she hears plans for a murder, which turns out to be her own. Her frantic efforts to enlist help through the only means at her disposal, her growing terror and realization of the truth, and (along the way) the hints about her own life and personality she lets drop, make this a full character portrait not only of herself but of the unseen murderer, whose identity and motivations are surmised but never revealed. A tour de force of acting for the female star, who commands the stage throughout, this play also picks up through the many phone calls, personality vignettes of the outside world, including gangsters, phone operators, a police sergeant, etc., each of which is distinct and of vital importance to the storyline. The play has been adapted by the author for an easy stage presentation, which should be as telling as the original radio version; although both have been made available in this present printing.

The Hitch-Hiker by Lucille Fletcher

A ghost thriller, this story has the quality of an anecdote out of American folklore, drawing as it does on the local color and place-names of the United States. It is the tale of Ronald Adams, an average motorist, who sets out to drive from Brooklyn to California, and early on his journey encounters a strange and inexplicable hitch-hiker. His efforts to explain, then avoid, and finally destroy the constantly appearing figure along the highway carry him through several episodes and many states until the adventure finally culminates in an amazing and terrifying climax in New Mexico. The play, like good ghost stories, hovers between reality and unreality. Its mood of deepening horror makes it a fine display piece for a young male actor, and at the same time, its dashes of local color, its episodic bits of human reality give opportunities for strong acting among the supporting players.

LUCY by Erica Schmidt

Photo by Joan Marcus, 2023 Off-Broadway production

On paper, Ashling is the perfect person to take care of Mary’s young children: a confident, highly qualified childcare professional with a sunny disposition and lots of experience. But from the moment Mary hires her, something starts to feel just a little off. Is Ashling as wonderful as she seems? Is the misunderstanding all in Mary’s overworked, stressed-out, sleep-deprived mind? Surely she hasn’t welcomed someone unstable into her home, has she? LUCY is a comedic thriller about what happens when you don’t trust the person who holds the key to your front door.