I have a special connection to the world of horror musicals, having had the opportunity to play Herbert West in Stuart Gordon’s adaptation of his own classic, Re-animator The Musical. Being intimately familiar with the unique process of taking horror from the screen and translating it not just for the stage but also for song, I can assure you it’s no easy task. It also leaves a tremendous amount of room for interpretation, leading to quite the variety of tones, musical styles, and design elements. Come with me on a journey through some of the most popular – and a few more obscure – horror musical adaptations that have graced the bloody stage…
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
Adapted from old Penny Dreadfuls from the 1840s, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd is a bloody tale of revenge, cannibalism, madness, and murder, all told through the lens of the darkest gallows humor this side of an actual gallows. It tells the tale of Sweeney Todd, a barber wrongfully convicted of a trumped-up charge and sent to Australia, while his wife is driven mad and his daughter adopted by the enemy. Sweeney returns with vengeance on his mind, and begins to slit the throats of his clients, which his neighbor Mrs. Lovett then turns into meat pies and serves to her customers. One of the most famous works of arguably the greatest composer to ever live, Sweeney Todd won numerous Tony Awards and proves that horror can indeed go mainstream.
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW
Notice there’s no “picture” here? This might be a bit of a cheat because in this case the film came after the show, a fact that for some has been lost to time. There’s no way you can do a list of the great horror stage musicals without talking about this seminal work, a masterful blend of camp, horror, and sexual subversion.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Andrew Lloyd Webber took one of horror’s classic stories and one of the pantheons of cinema’s great monsters and crafted a pop-rock musical that is parts vengeful horror show, special effects spectacular, and haunting love story. One of Broadway’s longest-running musicals, The Phantom of the Opera is a perfect gateway to horror for those that might feel nervous. It’s accessible, has some fun scares that aren’t too scary, and is endlessly catchy. I can attest: this was my gateway to horror as an eight-year-old novice. Get ’em early!
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
In 1982 Alan Menken and Howard Ashman brought their sincere, campy adaptation of Roger Corman’s classic film to Off-Broadway, to huge accolades, resulting in an initial five-year run. The way it takes the darkly comic tone of the original film and weaves in such sincerity and heart is nothing short of beautiful, not to mention the stagecraft required to operate the iconic puppet of Audrey II. It’s a wonderful musical and another great gateway for younger fans into the horror world – a little dangerous, but served with something sweet. Of course, this is another show that got adapted to the screen with Frank Oz’s 1986 classic – a rare example of a musical that started as a horror movie, became a stage show, then got translated again to the screen!
JEKYLL & HYDE: THE MUSICAL
A personal favorite of mine, Frank Wildhorn’s musical is pop-cheese perfection, a dark, self-serious take on the classic horror story and Universal monster picture. A standout moment is the song “Confrontation,” in which Jekyll and Hyde – played by the same actor – have a musical argument with each other that is both genuinely impressive musically and requires a physical and fine-tuned performance, and also beautifully campy and inherently sort of silly. Pure entertainment.
LESTAT: THE MUSICAL
I was lucky enough to see one of the very few (only 39!) performances of this Elton John/Bernie Taupin show before it closed on Broadway. An adaptation of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, Lestat is a combination of several Lestat tales: The Vampire Lestat and Interview with the Vampire, specifically. I’ve always loved this oddity of a musical – far from perfect, but strange enough to warrant a listen.
RE-ANIMATOR THE MUSICAL
Obviously I had to include this one, a rare example of a filmmaker – in this case, the great Stuart Gordon – adapting their own work. Stuart had come from the world of theatre originally, founding the Organic Theatre Company in Chicago, and so wanted to return to his roots with this grand Guignol, bloody spectacle that incorporated wild special effects stagecraft (created by legends and original Re-Animator crew members John Carl Buechler, Tony Doublin, and John Naulin), puppetry, and his signature brand of dark humor.
photo courtesy Jim Kunz
It was important to him that this show stood on its own and was not beholden to the film. We approached every scene first from a place of inventing it anew, then would fine-tune with those elements from the film that needed to be a part of the DNA. What resulted was – in my opinion – a sincere and entertaining adaptation that was at once its own thing while also channeling the classic film in a way that felt perfectly balanced. Mark Nutter’s libretto and score are of huge importance to its success, a razor-sharp, witty, near-operatic, Sondheim-esque train that carries through the entire show, almost non-stop. It was the honor of my life to be a part of this production, and I think of it often.
CARRIE: THE MUSICAL
One of the most famous flops in musical theatre history, Carrie: The Musical‘s original Broadway run closed after only five performances. Since then, it has found a resurgence and new appreciation with modern audiences, resulting in new productions Off-Broadway, in London, and Los Angeles. (Seen above in a televised one-episode revival for the CW’s Riverdale.)
EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL
One of the pioneers of the “Splash Zone” that we would go on to use to great, bloody effect in Re-Animator The Musical, Evil Dead: The Musical is a high camp love letter to everyone’s favorite ill-fated journey to a cabin in the woods. With gallons of blood-letting onto the first rows of the audience, cheeky (or should I say chin-ny) mugging from Ash, and singing taxidermied creatures, Evil Dead is a blast of a night at the theatre.
THE TOXIC AVENGER: THE MUSICAL
Billed as “the feel-goo musical of the year,” The Toxic Avenger is a rock musical comedy based on the Troma classic. After a run of over 300 performances Off-Broadway, Toxie had a huge nationwide tour and continues to be performed around the world. Troma seems a perfect inspiration for musical theatre, as evidenced by The Toxic Avenger‘s easy balance of camp, counter-culture, and gross-out humor.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
Mel Brooks’ classic horror-comedy seems like a no-brainer as the inspiration for a stage musical, especially following Brooks’ massive success with his stage adaptation of The Producers a few years prior. Starring a murderer’s row of Broadway legends – including the likes of Roger Bart, Sutton Foster, Shuler Hensley, Andrea Martin, and Megan Mullally – Young Frankenstein opened to mixed reviews but would go on to have a generous Broadway run and a successful world tour.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Matching the pitch-black tone of Charles Addams’ original comics perfectly, the Broadway adaptation of The Addams Family tells the story of Wednesday Addams finding a new boyfriend, who also happens to be disastrously normal. As her family meets his, hijinks ensue as the Addams’ gothic sensibilities clash with that of his run-of-the-mill suburban family, resulting in hilarity and a love-filled ending where both families learn valuable lessons from the other. And you get to see Uncle Fester sing a ukulele love song to his own lover: The Moon! What more could you possibly want?
DRACULA: THE MUSICAL
Frank Wildhorn returns with this wild pop spectacle about the cinematic and literary king of the vampires, Dracula. A famous Broadway flop (which I was ALSO lucky enough to catch one of the few performances of), it gained particular notoriety for a nude scene in which Dracula seduces Lucy. Directed by the same helmer as the Broadway run of The Who’s Tommy, Dracula: The Musical is part rock show, part vampire melodrama, and all bonkers spectacle.
THE FLY: THE OPERA
If you considered Cronenberg’s The Fly to be operatic, you were not alone. In another rare example of the filmmaker adapting their own work, David Cronenberg directed an opera version of his classic The Fly, with a libretto by superstar playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), and score by original composer Howard Shore. Critics largely panned the results, but the scope and reach of this production is undeniable. We need more big swings in the theatrical horror landscape, and this was certainly one of the biggest.
BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL
Finally we get to the most recent of these horror musical adaptations, Beetlejuice, which re-opened on Broadway just last week! Being forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is one of the first major Broadway hits from the “before times” to be returning to the stage. With a cast led by the inimitable Alex Brightman as Beetlejuice, the show boasts a pop-musical score, outlandish Tim Burton-inspired sets and costumes, as well as dark gallows humor and even a reprise of the famous “Day-O” number from the film.
There are countless other horror musicals that have been adapted from the silver screen, including American Psycho, Heathers, and The Terminator, but we don’t have nearly enough space to list them all here! What is important to remember is that no matter how familiar we may be with a classic, there is always a next wild step it can take in its artistic evolution. There is a quote from one of my favorite Chekhov plays, The Seagull, in which Treplev says of art and theatre: “We need new forms! New forms are necessary, otherwise it’s better to have nothing at all.”
I agree with that. Give me more horror musicals! They require so much creativity, so many artistic minds have to come together to birth something altogether new and unique. It only serves to reinvigorate excitement and appreciation for the original. It’s also a perfect gateway for people who otherwise shudder at the thought of watching a horror film to dip their toes into the dark waters. So the next time you see a horror musical happening near you, take a chance on it. Magic happens when the lights go down and that overture begins to play…
Beetlejuice is now back on Broadway and will also be haunting Hollywood this summer.
