Mosley Street Melodrama’s Halloween show dishes up parody of classic horror movie
There’s a prerequisite before seeing Mosley Street Melodrama’s Halloween show, beginning this weekend and continuing through Oct. 30.
Co-writer and director Kyle Vespestad strongly suggests seeing the 1978 horror movie “Halloween.”
“I try to tell everybody to watch the movie first and then come see this. I think it’ll be a lot funnier,” said Vespestad, who wrote it with longtime collaborator, Mosley artistic director Monte Riegel Wheeler. “It’ll be funny either way even if you haven’t seen it, but it will amp up the funniness if you’ve seen the original 1978 movie.”
Vespestad, who makes a point of watching the movie every year, sat down with Wheeler, whom Vespestad was uncertain had ever seen the horror flick, to watch the movie and write the script.
“Watching it together it just became funny. We found the humor in it. It kind of wrote itself, really,” he said. “We kept a lot of the original dialogue from the movie and then just played with it.”
The cast of six also gathered at Vespestad’s house to watch the movie on the first night of rehearsals.
Vespestad plays villain Michael Myers in the movie. Megan Parsley plays Laurie, and Gabbe Meloccaro plays Tommy, the boy Laurie babysits. The rest of the cast – John Bates, Julia Faust and Scott Noah – play anywhere from two to five different characters.
The theme continues to the second act musical revue, unofficially titled “Silver Screen Slashers.”
“It’s an homage to the old standard Halloween movie baddies,” Noah said.
At least a dozen different film characters will be represented in the musical numbers, written by Wheeler and Steve Hitchcock and directed by Hitchcock.
The theme continues in the décor, Noah added.
“Monte’s really decked out the theater. It looks like an old, vintage movie theater,” he said.
‘Halloween: The Melodrama’
When: Through Oct. 30; doors open at 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. Sundays
Where: Mosley Street Melodrama, 234 N. Mosley
Tickets: $32-$36 for Friday-Saturday dinner and show, $24-$28 for show only; $34-$38 for Sunday brunch, from 263-0222
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 4:04 PM.