Halloween – The Musical
Halloween – The Musical
By John DeHaas
Directed and Choreographed by Doug White
Starring John Graham, David Houde, Shawn Walsh
Footlights Theatre, Orlando FL</strong>
Who would ever imagine a cello on stage at the Footlights Theatre? It took the composing genius of John DeHaas to put it there, even if its only in the service of one of the best horror parodies to past though our darkened woods. You might remember little Mikey Meyers (Walsh) who knifed his big sister for the twin crimes of teen age sex and eating his only Snickers Bar. That was in 1963, and fifteen years of institutional food kept him mum on the motivation even as Dr. Sam Loomis (Graham) worked to understand his twisty little mind. Mike discovers teens are STILL doing it, so he slips away from his captors and pretty quick its Spam-in- a-cabin time, only this time laughs fill in for the blood.
Nowadays, any random event becomes the germ of a show with a colon and exclamation point in the title, but this one delivers the internal organs. From opening number “Trick or Treat” to the boffo closer “She Ate My Last Snickers”, DeHaas gives us a solid comedy without falling too deeply into the easy horror movie tropes. The song styles range from show tunes to doo wop and come across sounding surprisingly clean in a room full of drunks screaming love and adoration for David Houde. The cool part of the show was John Graham, the histrionic and Shatneresque Dr Lewis. The original Bob from the first movie, he breaks us out midway through the show to show a highlight reel of his “dying foot” scene and call the rest of the cast “carnies.” This Halloween isn’t scary and has some rough spots, but the energy and creativity makes it better than any theme part scare night you’ll eve visit.
For tickets and more information, please visit www.WANZIE.com/boxoffice
