Frankenstein’s Monster comes to life on 42nd Street… Witches cackle in The Gershwin… And ogres are taking residence on Broadway! What better place to celebrate the spooks and creeps of Halloween than The Great Fright Way?
In the spirit of good fun and festivities, BroadwayWorld asked some of New York’s finest Broadway and Off-Broadway actors to share their craziest memories of Halloween…
Hilarious pranks in high-school? Self-made unique costumes? Eating candy until dawn? These actors get to play dress-up 8 times a week, but what was it like when they only got to play dress-up once a year? Many stars shared their best personal stories of our favorite spooky holiday!
HAVE A FUN AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!!!
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Celia Keenan-Bolger (Les Miserables) and Todd Buonopane (Grease): My favorie Halloween memory was unquestionably when my college friends and I went as the Addams Family at the University of Michigan. We made the costumes ourselves and looked awesome! We, of course, won the best costume contest at the Musical Theater Majors’ party!
pictured: Todd Buonopane as Pugsly, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Wednesday,
Courtney Balan as Morticia, Daniel Reichard as Gomez and Alexander Gemignani
as Uncle Fester, with friend Andy Sievers as Lurch
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Michael Berresse (A Chorus Line): A couple of years ago I decided it would be "fun" to introduce my 70 year-old mother to Halloween in New York City. We both dressed-up as old-timey prison convicts and headed down to the Christopher Street Parade. Needless to say, this adorably-game older woman with a ball and chain was a huge hit with the Drag Queens, and they were a huge hit with her. So there we were chatting with Wonder Woman and Princess Diana when suddenly there was a crush of people behind the street barricade because the subway entrance had closed. People were still trying to get in as the others were coming out and we were stuck in the middle, literally being crushed with nowhere to go except over the barricade! The news clip flashed in my head: Broadway actor's mother crushed by Glamazons. I gave my mom a leg-up but she could only get half-way over. Out of nowhere, a dreamy young NYPD officer (a real one) reached from the other side, scooped her out of my arms and into his and carried her over to safety. New headline: Hunky cop snatches 70 year-old convict out of Drag Queen stampede. Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
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Stephanie J. Block (9 to 5): My favorite Halloween stories come from handing-out candy as opposed to going door-to-door. One Halloween, my brother-in-law, Jason and I decided to go all out... make the front-yard a cemetery with dry ice! We decorated the bushes with spiderwebs and glowing red eyes; we had a fake body fall from the balcony when they approached the front door while spooky music pumped through the stereo system. All of this would scare the young ones and the pre-teens, but the high schoolers would just make fun of us and act as if they were "over it"... UNTIL... they would reach for candy on the table we had set up. It, too, was decorated with goo, spider webs, and a plater with a bloody head. It looked fake until it would open it's eyes and try to bite their hands. It was actually my brother-in-law crouched under the table and his head sitting on a bloody platter. I know it sounds a little sick and creepy but we would laugh everytime!!! THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER thanks to my bro, Jason!
