Willkommen, bienvenue— spooky! Fremde! Entranger— corpses! Not exactly your grandmother’s Cabaret, now is it? That’s because Stillpointe Theatre is bringing you the rarely produced, regional premiere of Scott Keys & Rob Hartmann’s Macabaret. A saucy good time for the dead and all their ghoulish guests, this musical revue features just six putrid performers delivering cabaret and vaudeville style song and dance numbers that will set your Spooky-meter into overdrive. Halloween itself may be officially over, but Stillpointe Theatre is taking a warped, Tim-Burton approach to that iconic Muppet Christmas Carol line: “…wherever you find death, it feels like Halloween!” And does it ever with their production of Macabaret! Directed by Amanda J. Rife with Musical Direction by Stacey Antoine, this scintillating spooky cabaret is just what the grim reaper ordered to keep your spooky spirits bright and ready to slay all this winter long.
From the moment you’re allowed into the audience at 1915 Maryland Avenue, you’re awash in the macabre. Set Designer Ryan Haase has ensconced the play area with spiderwebs, which creep themselves all along the bar, the back wall, right over to the live orchestra pit area (conducted by master musician Stacey Antoine, who in all the fiercest ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ drag looks as if the pianist could pop right up, fit right in and do a solo number at any moment!) Haase alludes to this notion of an old gothic parlor, keeping the set simple but interesting. Augmented by the work of Projections Designer Johnny Rogers, there are mirrors and screens across the back wall which feature several chilling scenes that rotate depending upon the musical number at hand. Rogers also projects each song title as its happening onto a gothic-looking tombstone board off to the far side of house left, like a little vignette title card.
And if you think Haase and Rogers are steeped in spooky, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Costume Designer Kitt Crescenzo and Wig & Makeup Designer Danielle Robinette pack a powerhouse punch to really deliver a stunning spectacular in the aesthetic department. The costumes defy description in the most extraordinary and amazing way possible. Crescenzo has shimmering evening gowns that are bedecked with glittery eyeballs (each eye has it’s own set of glittery eyelashes!) and phantom mantlepieces for the host. One doesn’t want to describe every last detail as that would ruin the breathtaking surprise. Robinette provides more than her fair share of accents to the overall costume approach of these six characters, giving the gaunt and ghoulish look to some while applying a ghastly glitter approach to others. Their combined efforts elevate the show’s overall aesthetic to an otherworldly experience that is not to be missed.
The musical numbers come together under the superior direction of the aforementioned Stacy Antoine (and the magical three-pit live orchestra including Antoine on piano, Joe Pipkin on percussion, and at this performance, Jason Wilson on bass.) Director Amanda J. Rife coordinates entrances and exits to flow seamlessly one into the next, moving like a real vaudeville cabaret. There are even some kitschy dance routines featured throughout, be it two-person tangos, huge group box-steps, or little bits of hilarious movement scattered all in-between. It’s a combination effort resulting in a spooktacular evening of entertainment that should not be missed.
The show itself is chock full of puns so foul you’ll die groaning. Co-creators Scott Keys & Rob Hartmann infuse each of the numbers and little segments with dark, gallows humor— their six performers are all very much very dead from the very beginning— and there are definitely some groan-worthy jokes laced liberally throughout. The comic shenanigans that these six performers develop, both with the script and with each other make for a truly funny-bone-tickling evening, revitalizing ‘spooky season’ while all the rest of the world is out there putting up the Christmahanukkwanzica lights.
Phil Graves (Joseph Mulhollen) is the evening’s MC, if you will, and he’s supported by The ShowGhoul (Rachel Blank, who arguably has one of the coolest costumes and makeup plots in the production, just try to count each of the rhinestone on her skeletal suit; it’s deadly!) The four remaining players— Victoria Bledsoe, Maude Lynn, Donna Shroud, and Paul Bearer (played by Meghan Taylor, Valerie Holt, Jayné Harris, and Derek Cooper, respectively)— are a ghoulishly gifted ensemble who really know how to play up these creepy characters, giving the audience thrill after thrill, all laced with loads of laughter.
There’s about 18 songs in total (with the “Welcome to the Macabaret” featuring at the top of the show and again in a reprise format at the production’s conclusion) and the range in musical styles, though most sit in that vaudeville, jazzy, ragtime wheelhouse, with a few paying sharp homage to various and sundry musical theatre numbers who came before them. Each performer has a chance to have their rotting moment in the limelight… or decomposing moment? They are all dead creatures, after all.
Maude Lynn, played by the talented Valerie Holt, has that long-dead psychic medium aesthetic about her character and her makeup plot is by far the most skeletally ghoulish. You get your first taste of Holt’s capable vocals during the duet “Oh, Edward!/What Kind of Vampire Is That?” which is less of a duet and more of a dueling side-along song featuring the disgruntled Phil Graves. Her comic interactions at the top of this dueling duo read like a comedy sketch to set the tone for the number and her comic timing is perfection. Holt saunters and sings her way through “Blood Type” with that robust, brassy, early-Broadway sound and manages to really sell the sensuality of the character despite the absurdist lyrics. The only thing that warbles in Holt’s performance is her character’s sanity; she could snap at any moment and she’s got the vivacious facial expressions to prove it.
Paul Bearer, the jovial and indefatigably energetic Derek Cooper, gets a rare moment in this creepy cabaret to just tell a story. It’s a little more than halfway through the performance, this “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf” routine. Cooper delivers a stunning spoken-word poem, which reads a bit like Dr. Seuss dipped in caustic acid and soaked in the slimy ooze of a thousand tombs. But you really get to enjoy Cooper in musical theatre action during “Dead End Job” (a dueling nonsense number that is slightly reminiscent of Godspell’s “All For The Best”.) Cooper goes head-to-head with the Phil Graves character bemoaning their respective miserable jobs and a pun-war of lousy jokes ensues during the bridge break. It’s epic.
The aforementioned Phil Graves, played with suave charisma by Joseph Mulhollen, is featured in several musical numbers but his big breakout solo is a hysterical homage to The Rocky Horror Show’s “Sweet Transvestite” only it’s called “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.” The outfit Mulhollen wears for this number is as fabulous as his glitter-lip makeup plot and the way he rocker-belts through the song is simply stellar. Mulhollen also leads most of the group numbers, including the tragically beautiful and somber number (the first number in the performance where all six actors sing together as one big group), “Murder of Crows.” All six of the performers, Mulhollen in particular, have well-balanced voices that are well suited for these song styles.
The ShowGhoul (Rachel Blank) is something else entirely. Try not to laugh your arse off during “Cloven Hooves & Horns.” While the number is really a group number, with the other five singing and bouncing along like the deadly dapper dan quintet, Blank is chewing scenery… as an actual cow… (with a nod to Rent in there when they call the cow Elsie) and it is hysterical. Blank’s facial expressions are wildly animated all throughout the performance and you can’t help but be drawn to her when she’s death-rattle-dancing her way through “Skin & Bones.” Blank really gets a chance to knock one out of the park with her solo, “Grave Mistake”, where she showcases this grotesquely gorgeous sound that feels like a real ghost singing from some place long ago. She’s got an emotional fire to burn and does so with gusto, despite the song’s ridiculous lyrics (again not unlike Chicago’s “Funny Honey.”)
Victoria Bledsoe (Meghan Taylor) pops up pretty early on, bringing us our very first solo number past the show’s intro. Taylor delivers a number called “Victoria’s Secret” and its not at all what you’re thinking. This number is an homage-nodding replica of Nunsense’s “So You Want To Be A Nun”, only instead of a potty-mouthed-hand-puppet this number features a psychotic, shoulder-creeping demon that is literally ‘possessed’ into Taylor’s person (attached at the shoulder; it’s creepy as hell and gives you both the willies and the giggles!) Taylor gets a chance to showcase their vocal versatility by singing sweet soprano with tittering, nervous lyrics in this number and then bursting into evil-gravel-voice whenever the demon entity takes over the performance. Taylor is perhaps also the winner of “best corpse in motion” for their dance of death where Derek Cooper’s Paul Bearer is yippee-ki-yi-yaying all around the stage, yeehawing during “R.I.P.” and dragging Taylor along in a square dance. Except Taylor’s character is actively dead for this number and Taylor manages to flop around like a lifeless corpse whilst simultaneously staying upright on their feet. It’s one of the most entertaining moments in the cabaret.
Can’t forget those creepy eyes— which are always watching you— as they’re plastered all over the dress of Donna Shroud (Jayné Harris.) Featured in the “Boogie Woogie Boogie Man” trio, alongside the Victoria Bledsoe and Maude Lynn characters, Harris gets a chance to deliver her best middle harmony as a ghoulish girly— think The Andrews Sisters…if they were dead. And possibly zombies. But Harris’ true melting moment in the ghastly limelight is later in the production when she gets to deliver her big solo, “Ghost of a Chance.” The unadulterated lounge lizard tenor sound that seeps out of Harris during this number is sublime and sets the mood for this sultry and scary number. There is something indescribably feral and wild about both Harris’ voice and her facial expressions during the middle bridge of the number and her extraordinary, sustained belt at the end of the song is to die for.
No one will give you the heebie jeebies like Stillpointe Theatre will with their production of Macabaret. So if you aren’t ready for all the tinsel, sleigh bells, and ho-ho-ho that inevitably arrives at the stroke of midnight on October 31… Stillpointe Theatre has the remedy for you. But don’t delay…these ghouls must return to their crypts on December 10 and you wouldn’t want to miss your chance to celebrate their macabre masterpiece, would you?
Running Time: Approximately 75 minutes with no intermission
Macabaret plays through December 10, 2022 (with no performances on the weekend of November 24-26 for the Thanksgiving holiday) with Stillpointe Theatre— 1915 Maryland Avenue in the heart of Station North’s Arts District in Baltimore, MD. Tickets are available at the door and in advance online.
