Five Fall Frights At Central Pa. Theatres
Football season has begun, and the smell of pumpkin spice everything wafts from coffee shops and bakeries. But the fall chill is not just in the air – it’s on the stages of several central Pennsylvania theatres that offer five fall frights to delight, from campy musicals to tense thrillers. Here’s a roundup:
- The Addams Family - Nittany Theatre at the Barn in Boalsburg, continues Wednesday, September 16 through Saturday, September 19.
The original Addams Family cartoons, on which the mid 60’s TV series was based, come to the stage in this cheeky Broadway musical that is the finale of Nittany Theatre’s first season at the Boal Barn in Boalsburg. The show closes this Saturday night, but the group will leave the spooky set by Will Snyder up to serve as the backdrop for a Halloween bash at the Barn on October 31.
- The Country - Things Unseen Theatre at The Church in the Middle of the Block Cultural Center in Altoona, continues Friday and Saturday, September 18 & 19.
Altoona’s Things Unseen stages a “cryptic thriller” by British playwright Martin Crimp about a rural doctor who brings home a girl in the middle of the night whom he claims to have found lying unconscious by the side of the road.
- The 39 Steps – The Playhouse at McConnellstown in Huntingdon, September 25 through October 4.
The Playhouse at McConnellstown offers a 1935 Alfred Hitchcock thriller, with plenty of laughs thrown-in, adapted from screen to stage by Patrick Barlow. In London, a man meets a woman with a thick accent who says she’s a spy and soon he’s on the run, doing battle with a spy ring.
- Jekyll and Hyde - State College Community Theatre at the State Theatre in State College, October 22-25.
State College Community Theatre presents the Broadway musical by Frank Wildhorn that brings to life the gothic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson. Only in a musical can Jekyll and Hyde sing a “duet” with each other, in a tour de force solo for the lead actor.
- Young Frankenstein - Altoona Community Theatre at the Mishler Theatre in Altoona, November 19-22.
The musical, with music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, is based on the comedian’s 1974 film. “IT’S ALIVE!” screams young Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced “Fronk-en-steen”) as he continues his grandfather’s evil experiments to reanimate the dead, with hilarious complications.
