Instead of trick-or-treating, you have two other choices on Halloween night: Long Beach Playhouse and Long Beach Improv Lab.
The Long Beach Playhouse is opening Noël Coward’s ghoulish “Blithe Spirit” with a champagne gala on Halloween night, Saturday, Oct. 31.
The witty 1941 play — which Coward wrote as a diversion during World War II — is considered a comedy, but with a dark undertone since it involves death and the supernatural.
In the play, novelist Charles invites a medium to his home to conduct a séance so he can gather material for his upcoming book. But things get weird when the spirit of Charles’ dead first wife, Elvira, appears. Only Charles can see and interact with Elvira as she creates havoc for him and his current wife, Ruth, who is very much alive.
Things take a darker, weirder, and also funnier turn when Elvira’s spirit sabotages Charles’ car, except Ruth is the one who drives it.
“Blithe Spirit” runs Oct. 31 to Nov. 28 at Long Beach Playhouse’s Mainstage Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., with two lower-priced previews on Thursday, Oct. 29 and Friday, Oct. 30. Tickets can be purchased through the box office at 562-494-1014 or at LBPlayhouse.org.
That same Halloween evening, Saturday, Oct. 31, the Long Beach Improv Lab is performing an improvised musical at Jammin’ Music in Bixby Knolls — but they need your help.
The hour-long show called “Slash: The Improvised Horror Musical” is based on slasher films like “Halloween,” but with improvised songs about gruesome death, accompanied by piano.
But in true improv fashion, how the show starts will be based on audience suggestions.
Creative director and pianist Daniel Smith called the show “zany” in an email to the Long Beach Post and perfect for those who “want to see something truly unique that might just change your mind about the nature of good and evil.”
Tickets are $20 online or $25 at the door, but Smith said patrons can message the Long Beach Improv Lab for a discounted ticket price if they need to. And, in true Halloween spirit, costumes are welcome.
For tickets to “Slash: The Improvised Horror Musical” at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Jammin’ Music, 4228 Atlantic Ave., visit Eventbrite.
And if you want to keep the scare fest going after Halloween, you can see California Repertory’s own version of “The War of the Worlds” radio adaptation starting the first weekend of November.
California Repertory, or Cal Rep, the producing arm of Cal State Long Beach’s drama department, calls it a “gripping theatrical event” on its website, as “live reports” cut into regular broadcasting to inform Americans about an unfolding Martian invasion.
Director Drew Kelly said in a press release that Koch’s adaptation of Wells’ novel is very relevant in our age of “constant breaking news, social media, misinformation and constant expectations of connectivity.”
“‘The War of the Worlds’ asks audiences to consider whose voices we trust, how we respond to uncertainty and what happens when fear becomes more powerful than fact,” he said.
Cal Rep’s “The War of the Worlds” at CSULB’s University Theatre, near the intersection of E. Seventh St. and E. Campus Dr., with the closest parking at lot E8, previews on Thursday, Nov. 5 and runs Friday, Nov. 6 through Friday, Nov. 13, with all shows at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, call the box office at 562-985-5526 or visit CSULB.edu.
And don’t forget, “The War of the Worlds” October radio show has been an annual tradition at Long Beach Shakespeare Company since 2002 — a riveting way to whet your appetite for Halloween. This year, it runs from Oct. 23-25 with voice actors and live sound effects.
Tickets for “The War of the Worlds” at the Helen Borgers Theatre, 4250 Atlantic Ave., on Friday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. are available at LBShakespeare.org.