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Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?

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Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?

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Keiichi2
#1Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 11:32am

Okay, I know this may sound like a strange topic, but as a fan of horror (classic and modern) as well a a regular viewer of Broadway shows, I have to wonder why there aren't more, or any in most cases, horror-themed plays? I don't know if it would catch on or not, but during the Fall months, I'm surprised it's not tried at least once.

I know back in the 70s there was the famous revival of Dracula with Frank Langella. And of course, over in London, there's the play of The Woman in Black. But those are the only ones in semi-recent memory that pops to my head. I personally would like to see someone attempt something - maybe a paranormal themed play or something that could use some interesting stage effects.

It's something I've always wondered as the weather starts to turn cooler and Halloween draws near. I don't know, maybe it wouldn't fly with audiences or tourists. But I would hope someone would be willing to try.

pmensky
#2Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 2:22pm

I agree. There have been musicals, but we don't see plays like Dracula anymore. Thrillers like Wait Until Dark and Deathtrap are produced regularly, but horrors are in short supply. They tried to do The Exorcist a couple years ago. The only thing horrifying about it was that they cast Brooke Shields as the mom. In many cases, I think it's difficult to get behind the antagonists in horror stories. That's probably the trickiest part of producing something with audience appeal.

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Nateben2
#2Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 2:33pm

It's really hard to scare people . . . different people are scared by different things. And often, if you watch a lot of shows, if one group of people is scared and reacts, the rest of the audience will often laugh to the fact some people were "scared". It's really weird, at least in America . . . we are trained to laugh and clap at theater, and few other reactions are accepted.

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Jordan Catalano
#3Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 2:46pm

My goal in life has always been to write a horror play that can work on stage. I've thought long and hard about it for a very long time and I just don't think actual "horror" as we know it can work on stage. When we think of horror, we usually think of movies and if we think of it in terms of that, there are so many variables that come into play as to what scares us. There is suspense (which can and has been done in theater, using the examples mentioned above) but music, jump cuts, sudden things jumping out (which is scary in large part due to editing) aren't something that can really be done live. And if they are tried, imagine sitting in the back of a broadway house watching that - it's not very scary and that's another part of what makes horror so scary in films - is that it's right there in our face either on a huge movie screen or on a TV only a couple feet away from us.

I don't think it's something that could ever or will ever translate to the stage unless it's done in an extremely intimate setting in a theater that's no more than 6-7 rows deep. I think even The Circle In The Square is too large for that genre to read well.

Updated On: 9/20/14 at 02:46 PM

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SweeneyLovett
#4Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 3:27pm

I've always felt horror was a filmmaker's genre. Creating suspense and making people jump on stage is much different from doing it on film. For example, on film, you can have a shot where we see the killer/monster hiding in the closet way before the protagonist does, thus enhancing the suspense of when and where they'll leap out. Editing and music can make something like this very intense, but it just wouldn't work on stage. Not to mention chase scenes and death scenes.

I guess we're left with Sweeney Todd and Carrie: The Musical, which are essentially horror stories but work [in Carrie's case, less so] due to the human drama inherent in them. The stage does character, dialogue, and emotion very well, but I can't really give us the same effects that a horror film can. Just look at the anti-climactic ways they've staged Carrie's big prom scene in the past. They've always been laughable. People should be getting gutted and electrocuted, not zapped by lasers or performing spastic choreographed dances.

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Mr. Nowack
#5Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 3:34pm

I have to agree that it's nearly impossible to create the sense of "horror" we associate with film on stage. I do wish there were more really good stage mysteries though.


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Mr Roxy
#6Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 3:37pm

Hard to sell to tourists especially those with families.


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FindingNamo
#7Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 3:43pm

It's an interesting theater discussion if the idea doesn't have to hinge on "Broadway".

Of course there's the issue of suspension of disbelief. Horror movie audiences often laugh at scenes because they "look so fake". So nowadays it might be a hard sell to get audiences to engage imaginatively with horror scenes.

One of the most chilling productions I ever saw was the great Propeller troupe's "Richard III" done in the style of the Grand Guignol, the famous French theater that did "realistic" horror shows. I'll never forget that production, because I was in an audience willing to just go with it.


Propeller's Richard III


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Jordan Catalano
#8Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 3:47pm

We can also reference SLEEP NO MORE if we're talking about "theater" in general and not just Broadway. An immersive environment like that is perfect for this genre because it is so intimate and in your face. I was genuinely scared during parts of my first experience there and loved every second of it, marveling at the fact that they were able to create that.

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Jay Lerner-Z
#9Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 4:23pm

Does "The Woman In Black" count as horror?

That's been running for years on the West End.


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blaxx
#10Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 4:24pm

The West End's Ghost Stories really worked for me. I had to close my eyes in fear during the first story. No, it's not a good play but it was satisfyingly effective.


Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

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sabrelady
#11Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 4:27pm

Wouldn't Shockhead Peter and Play Dead qualify?

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blaxx
#12Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 4:29pm

Both were Off Broadway. The OP was asking Broadway.


Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

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GavestonPS
#13Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 4:32pm

Horror in our time has become more about gore than suspense. (I used to be a huge fan and grew up on Hitchcock, but I can't find the entertainment value in the "torture porn" that dominates our culture today. Watching a pretty blonde plead for her life for 5 minutes gives me no pleasure.)

Films do gore better, as other have implied above.

DRACULA was sui generis, as much a comedy as a horror play. (A brilliant tango between the two, done perfectly.)

WAIT UNTIL DARK and DEATHTRAP were all about the suspense (the actual violence confined to brief moments at the ends of acts). I don't think contemporary audiences are that patient.

Back in the 1980s, I directed a couple of plays at a theater in Chelsea devoted to the horror/suspense genre. Our audiences were all elderly, even then.

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Jordan Catalano
#14Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 4:38pm

I consider Hitchcock suspense, not horror and I do think there's a big difference. The so called "torture porn" which I hate is just a sub genre of horror and doesn't represent it entirely.

And I don't consider SHOCKHEAD PETER horror. Honestly, I consider it boring as all hell.

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Someone in a Tree2
#15Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 5:24pm

That Gorey-designed production of Dracula was campy and sexy and visually fun but a far far cry from anything I would call horror. I wish I had seen Peter Brook's original MARAT-SADE back in '65, which might have approached what the OP is asking about.

I think SWEENEY TODD has come closest in all my years of show-going to that jump-in-the-throat sickening feeling of true horror. And you know why? Not because of the razors and blood and gore. But because of that damn lunch whistle! Jumped out of my seat every time it went off the first time I saw the show in previews at the Uris. And good for them to find a perfect aural counterpoint to true horror. It'll take a brilliant writer and/or director to top what Sondheim/Wheeler/Prince pulled off back in '79.

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blaxx
#16Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 5:24pm

Jordan, did you get a chance to see The Woman in Black or Ghost Stories?


Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

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mjohnson2
#17Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 5:32pm

There was recently a show called BLOOD PLAY at Under The Radar a few years ago that probably ranks as the scariest theatre experience of my life. I really wish that show could get a larger production, as it was exhilarating. I also found THE VISIT and CABARET to be scary in how intense they were.


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GavestonPS
#18Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 6:36pm

Someone in a Tree2, obviously I thought DRACULA juggled the suspense and horror with the camp. I don't recall Dracula's death being campy at all. (But I admit it's been years since I saw it.)

But I certainly agree with you about SWEENEY TODD. We even found a shop that sold meat pies and served them to guests after taking them to the show.

Jordan, horror and suspense certainly can be different genres. And they probably were back in the 1950s, when "horror" played drive-ins and B-movie theaters, while suspense was considered an A-level genre.

But Hitchcock pretty much merged the two in films such as PSYCHO and THE BIRDS. I'm not convinced there's much difference nowadays.

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BrerBear
#19Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 6:43pm

Have yet to see any horror themed play that really worked.
For example, I saw The Woman in Black last year in London and found it completely non-threatening, even though I am prone to get very spooked by horror and ghost stories. They were able to use loud noises to generate jump scares, but that was about it.

Maybe it's a problem of distance and perspective. With film, I always feel like I'm near enough to the "horror" to sense danger, but the theater doesn't really support that as well.

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BroadwayGuy12
#20Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 7:08pm

There was recently a show called BLOOD PLAY at Under The Radar a few years ago that probably ranks as the scariest theatre experience of my life. I really wish that show could get a larger production, as it was exhilarating.

I saw BLOOD PLAY's premiere at the Bushwick Starr, and I agree - I was amazed at how eerie the entire piece felt.

pmensky
#21Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 7:09pm

I think there has to be murder as well as suspense involved for it to be considered horror. Phantom of the Opera is a great example of the horror genre on stage.

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Idiot
#22Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 8:57pm

Horror films are a primary reason that Le Theatre Grand Guignol lost its lustre, but it did work for a very long time. I think it can work again, so get busy Jordan. And make no mistake -- seeing blood running live on stage IS very unsettling.

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SNAFU
#23Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 9:40pm

Not on Broadway but there was the highly successful Evil Dead the Musical and the less so Toxic Advenger at New World Stages. I think for horror to work it has to be in a smaller venue. I would love to see a top notch theatrical production of Turn of the Screw.


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FindingNamo
#24Why aren't there more horror-themed plays on Broadway?
Posted: 9/20/14 at 11:00pm

I never saw the Evil Dead movie but did see the musical in Toronto and I do remember some scary bits. But since it was played for laughs, it didn't have the creepiness that Propeller's Richard III had for me.

Jorday, maybe a Titus Andronicus update?


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