10 Bay Area shows with scares, thrills (and laughs)

The Bay Area really gets into Halloween, and that’s usually been reflected in its theaters as well.

There may not be as many productions of “Dracula,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Addams Family” or “The Rocky Horror Show” around the Bay this year as there have been in years past, but there are still plenty of spooky offerings for theatergoers with a taste for the macabre.

Here’s a partial rundown.

“Freddy Krueger’s Day Off”: SF sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster goes totally ’80s with this series of horror comedy sketches featuring an all-women cast. The show is billed as “spookier than Reaganomics” and promises that blood will “trickle down.” Each weekend features different costume or “dance like the ’80s” contests. Along with “Terror-Rama,” it’s also one of the last shows at venerable indie-theater hub the EXIT Theatre before that space closes its doors at the end of the year.

Details: Through Oct. 29; EXIT Theatre, San Francisco; $18.50-$42.50; www.killingmylobster.com.

“The Rocky Horror Show”: Before it became a widespread midnight movie sensation, “The Rocky Horror Show” was a similarly hilarious, campy musical by Richard O’Brien spoofing classic ’50s horror flicks with unforgettable songs and a seductive alien transvestite mad scientist orchestrating the chaos. Marin Musical Theatre Company’s production at Novato Theater Company promises to be hilarious and raunchy (kids under 13 not admitted), with plenty of audience participation.

Details: Through Oct. 31; Novato Theater Company, Novato; $35-$50; www.marinmusicals.org.

“Unhinged: Nightshade’s Curse”: Buried for two years, the Winchester Mystery House’s immersive Halloween show “Unhinged” is back from the dead this year with a whole new chapter. This walk-through of the famously creepy mansion is peppered with scary encounters to haunt the unwary or even the very wary. Set in 1949, “Nightshade’s Curse” sees Sarah Winchester’s haunted mansion now run by a traveling carnival impresario and supernatural investigator called Madame Nightshade.

Details: Through Oct. 31; Winchester Mystery House, San Jose; $65-$85; www.winchesterunhinged.com.

“The Summoning”: Bay Area production company Into the Dark’s immersive haunted-house theatrical experiences at the San Francisco Mint have become a Halloween tradition in their own right, and this year they’re back with a new spooky adventure. You’re invited to attend a live séance that may summon spirits, demons or even a vampire queen. Evening performances are R-rated (18 and up) and matinees are PG-13 (ages 13-17 admitted with an adult). There’s also an ’80s-themed vampire bar called Fang Bang for which “Summoning” tickets are not required.

Details: Through Nov. 5; San Francisco Mint, San Francisco; $55-$75; www.intothedarksf.com.

“Terror-Rama IV: In Space!”: Awesome Theatre’s horror theater double feature returns with two new one-acts by local playwrights presented midnight movie-style, complete with its own horror host, Sindie Chopper. Thrill to Alandra Hileman’s “Parallax Denigrate,” about six spacecraft workers trapped together in a room with no outside contact, and guffaw at Jess Thomas’ “Space Babes from Planet Evil,” in which the rag-tag survivors of “the worst starship in the fleet” meet a pair of aliens that seem awfully nice but probably aren’t nice at all.

Details: Through Oct. 29; EXIT Theatre, San Francisco; $25-$30; awesometheatre.org.

“Misery”: Tales of terror don’t come much more terrifying than “Misery,” the story of a popular romance novelist held prisoner and tortured by his self-proclaimed biggest fan who wants him to write a sequel resurrecting her favorite character. Based on the novel by Stephen King, the 2012 play was written William Goldman (“The Princess Bride,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”), who also wrote the screenplay for the 1990 movie that won Kathy Bates an Oscar.

Details: Through Oct. 30; Cinnabar Theater, Petaluma; $30-$45; www.cinnabartheater.org.

“Wait Until Dark”: Best known today for the 1967 Audrey Hepburn movie, “Wait Until Dark” was first a play by Frederick Knott (who also wrote “Dial M for Murder”) that premiered on Broadway just a year earlier in 1966. The psychological thriller follows a blind housewife home alone while three criminals search her basement apartment for a valuable package. Tabard Theatre Company is using a 2013 version of the play newly revised by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher.

Details: Oct. 21-Nov. 13; Tabard Theatre, San Jose; $15-$45; tabardtheatre.org.

“Macbeth” and “Frankenstein”: San Jose’s Hammer Theatre Center hosts two different creepy tales for intrepid theatergoers. In the intimate Hammer4 Studio, theater troupe Actors from the London Stage perform a live five-person production of Shakespeare’s notorious Scottish Play full of witches, ghosts and murder. Meanwhile the larger mainstage presents screenings of the National Theatre’s acclaimed London production of “Frankenstein,” in which Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternated between the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature. There’s one screening of each cast configuration.

Details: Oct. 27-28; Hammer Theatre Center, San Jose; $25 (“Macbeth”) or $20 (“Frankenstein”); www.hammertheatre.com

“The Speakeasy: All Hallows’ Eve”: Immersive Prohibition-era theatrical experience “The Speakeasy” throws its own kind of Halloween party at SF’s Palace Theatre featuring characters from the long-running show, spooky period song and dance, vaudeville performances, ghost stories, a magic show, a costume contest and of course a lot of liquor.

Details: Oct. 28-31; Palace Theatre, San Francisco; $85-$150 (subject to change); www.thespeakeasysf.com.

Contact Sam Hurwitt at [email protected], and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.

The Bay Area really gets into Halloween, and that’s usually been reflected in its theaters as well.

There may not be as many productions of “Dracula,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Addams Family” or “The Rocky Horror Show” around the Bay this year as there have been in years past, but there are still plenty of spooky offerings for theatergoers with a taste for the macabre.

Here’s a partial rundown.

“Freddy Krueger’s Day Off”: SF sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster goes totally ’80s with this series of horror comedy sketches featuring an all-women cast. The show is billed as “spookier than Reaganomics” and promises that blood will “trickle down.” Each weekend features different costume or “dance like the ’80s” contests. Along with “Terror-Rama,” it’s also one of the last shows at venerable indie-theater hub the EXIT Theatre before that space closes its doors at the end of the year.

Details: Through Oct. 29; EXIT Theatre, San Francisco; $18.50-$42.50; www.killingmylobster.com.

“The Rocky Horror Show”: Before it became a widespread midnight movie sensation, “The Rocky Horror Show” was a similarly hilarious, campy musical by Richard O’Brien spoofing classic ’50s horror flicks with unforgettable songs and a seductive alien transvestite mad scientist orchestrating the chaos. Marin Musical Theatre Company’s production at Novato Theater Company promises to be hilarious and raunchy (kids under 13 not admitted), with plenty of audience participation.

Details: Through Oct. 31; Novato Theater Company, Novato; $35-$50; www.marinmusicals.org.

“Unhinged: Nightshade’s Curse”: Buried for two years, the Winchester Mystery House’s immersive Halloween show “Unhinged” is back from the dead this year with a whole new chapter. This walk-through of the famously creepy mansion is peppered with scary encounters to haunt the unwary or even the very wary. Set in 1949, “Nightshade’s Curse” sees Sarah Winchester’s haunted mansion now run by a traveling carnival impresario and supernatural investigator called Madame Nightshade.

Details: Through Oct. 31; Winchester Mystery House, San Jose; $65-$85; www.winchesterunhinged.com.

“The Summoning”: Bay Area production company Into the Dark’s immersive haunted-house theatrical experiences at the San Francisco Mint have become a Halloween tradition in their own right, and this year they’re back with a new spooky adventure. You’re invited to attend a live séance that may summon spirits, demons or even a vampire queen. Evening performances are R-rated (18 and up) and matinees are PG-13 (ages 13-17 admitted with an adult). There’s also an ’80s-themed vampire bar called Fang Bang for which “Summoning” tickets are not required.

Details: Through Nov. 5; San Francisco Mint, San Francisco; $55-$75; www.intothedarksf.com.

“Terror-Rama IV: In Space!”: Awesome Theatre’s horror theater double feature returns with two new one-acts by local playwrights presented midnight movie-style, complete with its own horror host, Sindie Chopper. Thrill to Alandra Hileman’s “Parallax Denigrate,” about six spacecraft workers trapped together in a room with no outside contact, and guffaw at Jess Thomas’ “Space Babes from Planet Evil,” in which the rag-tag survivors of “the worst starship in the fleet” meet a pair of aliens that seem awfully nice but probably aren’t nice at all.

Details: Through Oct. 29; EXIT Theatre, San Francisco; $25-$30; awesometheatre.org.

“Misery”: Tales of terror don’t come much more terrifying than “Misery,” the story of a popular romance novelist held prisoner and tortured by his self-proclaimed biggest fan who wants him to write a sequel resurrecting her favorite character. Based on the novel by Stephen King, the 2012 play was written William Goldman (“The Princess Bride,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”), who also wrote the screenplay for the 1990 movie that won Kathy Bates an Oscar.

Details: Through Oct. 30; Cinnabar Theater, Petaluma; $30-$45; www.cinnabartheater.org.

“Wait Until Dark”: Best known today for the 1967 Audrey Hepburn movie, “Wait Until Dark” was first a play by Frederick Knott (who also wrote “Dial M for Murder”) that premiered on Broadway just a year earlier in 1966. The psychological thriller follows a blind housewife home alone while three criminals search her basement apartment for a valuable package. Tabard Theatre Company is using a 2013 version of the play newly revised by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher.

Details: Oct. 21-Nov. 13; Tabard Theatre, San Jose; $15-$45; tabardtheatre.org.

“Macbeth” and “Frankenstein”: San Jose’s Hammer Theatre Center hosts two different creepy tales for intrepid theatergoers. In the intimate Hammer4 Studio, theater troupe Actors from the London Stage perform a live five-person production of Shakespeare’s notorious Scottish Play full of witches, ghosts and murder. Meanwhile the larger mainstage presents screenings of the National Theatre’s acclaimed London production of “Frankenstein,” in which Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternated between the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature. There’s one screening of each cast configuration.

Details: Oct. 27-28; Hammer Theatre Center, San Jose; $25 (“Macbeth”) or $20 (“Frankenstein”); www.hammertheatre.com

“The Speakeasy: All Hallows’ Eve”: Immersive Prohibition-era theatrical experience “The Speakeasy” throws its own kind of Halloween party at SF’s Palace Theatre featuring characters from the long-running show, spooky period song and dance, vaudeville performances, ghost stories, a magic show, a costume contest and of course a lot of liquor.

Details: Oct. 28-31; Palace Theatre, San Francisco; $85-$150 (subject to change); www.thespeakeasysf.com.

Contact Sam Hurwitt at [email protected], and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.