There are witches prowling the
night sky, monsters causing mayhem and phantoms lurking
in the shadows. Are
we experiencing a horror-filled Halloween - or is it
just another jovial night on Broadway?
Seemingly creepy characters like
the Wicked Witch of the West, Frankenstein’s monster and the Phantom
of the Opera are no stranger to the Broadway stage. Quite
the contrary, the Great White Way has seen more that
it’s fair share of specters, vampires, slashers
and any number of entities that go bump in the night. But
while these disturbing denizens of the underworld might
quicken your pulse when viewed on the big screen, when
it comes to the stage there’s hardly any horror.
The Oxford American dictionary
defines horror as, “an
intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust”. When
was the last time that you remember going to the theatre
for that? I know what you’re thinking,
but Oh! Calcutta! doesn’t count. In
the theatre you get big doses of suspense, intrigue,
mystery and thrills but where’s the horror?
The horror genre is very popular
on the screen and a big moneymaker as well. Why then doesn’t
it translate to the stage?
Perhaps the main reason comes down
to execution of the art form. In films the director has a greater
control over what the audience is actually allowed
to see. Depending on the lighting, the shots,
the angles, the background score, etc. the director
can mete out the specific information he wants the
viewer to have and the suspenseful atmosphere surrounding
it. He can “point”the audience’s
eye to a hand grasping a knife or a murky masked figure
peeking in the window. In doing so the director
focuses the attention on those images that cause fear
and dread about what’s coming next. He
also creates a sense of alienation and isolation in
the viewer by not allowing them to see what is going
on in the world of the movie beyond the camera’s
frame. The audience is forced to imagine what
might be lurking around the corner or in the shadows.
On stage a director simply isn’t able to exact
the same level of control. No matter how skillfully
directed a scene may be or how focused the lighting,
someone sitting in the mezzanine can be distracted
by a flash of clothing on an actor making her entrance
stage right, even though the play’s action is
taking place stage left. In other words, in theatre,
unlike on film, the audience member is free to look
wherever he or she pleases. It’s one of
the things that makes live theatre great –getting
to watch all the little nuances and interaction between
characters as a scene builds and develops –but
unfortunately it’s not so good for horror.
A few Broadway shows have tip-toed
the line of providing horror. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of
Fleet Street pops into my head on the musical
side. I’m told that the piercing whistle
blow that started the original show jolted many people
out of their seats. The macabre subject matter
must have helped as well but in the end when the evil
entity of the piece opens his mouth to sing he instantly
losses a bit of his edge.
Frank Langella’s Dracula (1977)
probably raised a hair or two on the backs of many
necks, but
you have to wonder if his ’79 film portrayal
was scarier. And I can only imagine what sort
of creepiness Vincent Price brought to the stage as
the murderous Mr. Manningham in Angel Street.
So why doesn’t horror work on stage? Who
knows, maybe it’s simply that hockey masks, chain
saws and knife blades are hard to properly light. But
if you’re somebody who likes to scream and loves
to be scared, don’t hold your breath for the
opening of Carrie 2: Mrs. White’s Revenge,
because even though there is a little shop full of
them and a picture show that’s got a rocky one,
horror on Broadway has only a ghostly presence. It
would appear that Broadway audiences prefer their ghouls
defying gravity, puttin’on the Ritz and listening
to the music of the night.
