MTM's "Monstersongs" is a Spooky Good Time
If a group of moderately scary, adult trick-or-treaters comes to your door in the next week, do not let them in. They do not want candy. They want to be understood. They are the cast of Monstersongs, Music Theatre of Madison’s fall production, which opened at The Crucible on October 8, and has only one more performance, at 7 p.m. October 15. Entirely apt for the Halloween season, the one-hour, intermission-free, rockin’ musical revue is a good time that is not meant to frighten you, but might make you think about standard boogeymen in a new way.
Introduced by a young girl (Freyda Oler) who is reading a magical book about things that go bump in the night, the monsters appear on the otherwise bare stage after she recites their descriptions. Each creature is dressed in classic DIY Halloween costumes — either fashioned out of old clothes from Goodwill and painted cardboard, or purchased directly from a party store — a kitchy veneer for some real supernatural beings.
Though the Doppleganger (Michael Myers) is clearly capable of murder, the Troll (Scott Lewis) is bitter about living under “the only bridge he didn’t burn,” and the Witch (Hannah Ripp-Dieter) would like to rip out a heart and hold it in her hand, it never feels like they pose any real threat to the girl or the audience. They do want to get some things off their chests, however, including; secret longings; origin stories; requests to be left alone; and pleas to be seen. Like many modern fairy tales that have been turned on their head, these creatures of the underworld ask us musically to accept them as they are. The songs, written and composed by Rob Rokicki, walk a nice line between familiar pop radio and musical theater exposition, allowing the cast of Halloween ghouls to reintroduce themselves to viewers with comedy, pathos, and unexpected emotional complexity.
Bringing the undead to life, the Monstersongs cast of 13 is an embarrassment of riches — each performer leaning in to their scary/haunted/misunderstood persona and embracing their ballads with full and impressive voices. In a score that routinely pushes performers to both the high and low edges of their range, even the singers with small parts shine brightly.
And some were positively haunting.
As the black-clad woman wronged in love, Hannah Ripp-Dieter is mesmerizing. She accepts the label “Witch” in a broken-hearted, revenge fantasy song called “Hell Hath No Fury,” described as a mix between Adele and Dionne Warwick. In a similar vein, Maddy Sylvester is fantastic as the forgotten Ghost who cannot keep her lover’s attention in the folk-y lament, “Right Through You.” Director and MTM Executive Director Meghan Randolph completes the tragic women trio as Medusa with the hard rocking ballad, “Say Goodbye.” Right in her wheelhouse, Randolph crushes the song, warning “I'll only turn you to stone/ Don't look me in the eye/ I've always been fine on my own/ So let's just skip the lie and say goodbye.”
But it’s not all sad stories. In the “ghouls just want to have fun” category, Patrice Hood and Anna Pfefferkorn have a blast as a Vampire and Zombie who have fallen for the same guy and happily share – one drinks the blood, while the other snacks on the brains.
Scott Lewis gets a workout onstage in three separate roles, but the most poignant is a duet he sings as the mysterious furry monster Sasquatch with Paul Lorentz’s polar Yeti. Mournfully, they describe their nearly invisible, misunderstood lives returning to the chorus “no one believed in me,” in the adorable song “Footprints.” I’m sure it’s only a copyright issue that prevented the giant Blue Bumble of Rudolph fame from joining in.
In many ways, the east side bar The Crucible is a great, non-traditional place to perform this musical. It’s got a built-in stage for live music, rudimentary lighting, and a cavernous audience space that can be configured as desired. A venue that looks for goth and alternative local acts, the hall and bar area are already well decorated for Halloween, which fits the show perfectly. Unfortunately, the five-piece band took up half of the stage space and the synthesizers and electric guitars sometimes overwhelmed the vocals or muddied the lyrics. After the first line or two the sound was adjusted to be more balanced, but the quality of the sound mixing and the overall volume occasionally made the passages sound flat or shrill. Because of the configuration of the stage and some additional sound difficulties, individual numbers were much more entertaining and successful than the opening and closing pieces, which featured the entire cast.
Music Theatre of Madison’s production is already captivating, but for those audience members who want to check out additional visuals, they can scan a QR code on the program to see comic book treatments for each monster. Created by children’s book illustrator Dave O’Neill, these images are part of a graphic novel that accompanies the musical.