Scare tactics

MONSTER MASH
Revivified Steve Blanchard, left, gets rough with creator Hunter Foster in Frankenstein.

Carol Rosegg

There is more than one way to skin a cat, and in a number of productions this Halloween, there’s a good chance the cat will be black—and the skinning literal. Those who go for the graphic could do worse than to check out Nosedive Productions’ The Blood Brothers Present: Pulp (Thu 11–Oct 27), which uses classic E.C. Comics such as Tales from the Crypt as inspiration. Director Peter Boivert promises ticket buyers “a vivisection, a particular nasty take on an incompetent stage magician, and the usual dismemberment, decapitation and destruction.”

Equally sanguine is the Impetuous Theater Company’s 12th Night of the Living Dead, starting October 25. This campy production literally smashes together the Shakespeare comedy and George Romero’s flesh-eating zombies. Playwright Brian McCinnis Smallwood insists that the text is all Shakespeare. “It’s just that some lines have changed into ‘Unnnnnnggghhh!’ and some scenes end with evisceration,” he explains.

For those who prefer spooky sounds to shocking spectacle, there is Radiotheatre’s H.G. Wells Science Fiction Festival (Thu 11–Nov 4), presented as an old-time radio broadcast, with minimal decor and an emphasis on music, sonic effects and spoken word. Audiences will hear a different Wells tale each performance, including The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau. Don’t let the sci-fi handle throw you; these stories all contain some horrific element, from cannibalistic monsters to mad scientists and hybrid man-beasts.

Promising to be heavy in gothic atmospherics is an Off Broadway musical version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, now in previews at 37 Arts. “It’s a faithful retelling of the novel, as opposed to the movie with the green monster with the bolts in his head,” says producer Douglas Evans. “Our version focuses on the relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and his creature. Shocking murders occur in the story, of course, but we tend to present them in a stylized way.”

Lastly, those who like varied treats in their bag might check out the Shortened Attention Span One Act Horror Festival (Thu 11–Oct 31), which presents 18 short thrillers over three weekends, culminating on Halloween in a marathon of the best ones, to be shown that night. Producer-playwright Carlo Rivieccio promises that the offerings will range from campy to moody and gruesome.

Why the proliferation of booga-booga on New York stages? Part of it is obviously seasonal. But according to Radiotheatre’s Dan Bianchi, who once toiled for low-budget schlockmeister Roger Corman, another cause is old-fashioned marketplace demand. “The audience for theater is one inch; the audience for horror is 12 miles,” Bianchi says. Perhaps we should make that 13.