Halloween can take many forms when packaged for entertainment. There’s the Elvira-type with its campy clowning (“grab your tools, boys, and let’s start banging”). A spooky funhouse usually contains a few thrills and chills. Jumpy people like myself steer clear. Slasher films aim to terrify. This holiday can effectively play to many styles. All Hallow’s Eve deliciously bills itself as “a wild, eclectic horror musical with puppets.”
This quasi-immersive theater piece takes the audience through a series of rooms. The first stop is outside a home which has been seriously decked out for trick or treaters. Mom (Marca Leigh) is dressed as a witch and she is fully stoked for an excellent day. Preparations are nearing completion. Ominously named daughter Eve (Haley Jenkins) is testing the moving ghosts attached to the clothesline. She’s wearing the classic sheet with eye holes and dryly remarks about being a Ralph Lauren ghost.
Dad goes along with the program but is really focused on scoring Mars candy bars. Eve has a twin brother Evan (Spencer Lott). While mom clings to her traditions, the kids just want to get candy and toilet paper some houses. Mom quickly relents and their adventure begins. The twins sing a song which comments on this nostalgic opening. “Necco wafers, what are those?”
After an awkward transition into the next area, the puppet show begins in earnest. The kids start their papering project. On a small stage, a chorus of cute, silly and clever puppets come alive. They are manipulated by an ensemble completely covered in black. You know they are there but the effect allows for Kaitee Yaeko Tredway’s wacky choreography. Evan sees a button that says “press.” Uh oh.
Follow me says the mistress of the house. She is simply named Witch (Jennifer Barnhart). Her persona is a little Elvira and a lot of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. She has the culinary yearnings of Dr. Frank-n-Furter with her assortment of puppet co-conspirators. The kids may be in trouble. What danger lurks while a storm rages? The kind showcased by a Witch who fake plays a skeleton as the band accompanies her on a vibraphone.
This musical then veers in many directions from silly to macabre, never quite reaching its spine-tingling ambitions. The best section, by far, is an inspired show-within-a-show. The Witch plays her marionettes from high above. They dance and tell jokes. Her sidekick PumpkinMan (Tyler Bunch) offers enthusiastic and dim-witted support. I laughed.
The puppets are impressive and so is the talent that created this show. Martin P. Robinson wrote and directed All Hallow’s Eve. He is the man who built, designed and performed Audrey II in the original Little Shop of Horrors. Best known for his thirty years or work on Sesame Street, he performed Telly Monster, Mr. Snuffleupagus and others. Mr. Robinson was also the animatronic puppeteer for the character of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s not a surprise, therefore, that these puppets are very inventive and interestingly manipulated. A number of transformations are outstanding.
Musical Director Paul Rudolph composed the score for this musical. I detected a whiff of Rocky Horror in at least one song. The story wanders from jokey to menacing and back again. The laughs are generally not big enough. Will the kids ever escape this Witch and her band of evildoers? No real tension is created which undermines the spookier parts. The puppet variations, however, always draw your eye into the visuals (even as your brain checks out on the plot).
Immersive theater is thriving in New York. All Hallow’s Eve isn’t quite ready for the big show yet. The puppets are truly a treat. The trick to making this creative endeavor soar are even funnier jokes, better tunes, sharper edges, a further developed plot and, most importantly, better management of the audience. A minor Halloween diversion today. Let’s hope this matures into a nostalgic and eerie must-see tomorrow.
All Hallow’s Eve is running through November 2, 2019 at the Connelly Theater.