The Halloween season is upon us once again, but like other occasions in recent years, this holiday season feels less festive. While this has shown up in entertainment, for Theater, this absence feels more apparent. Outside of the few standard productions, there hasn’t been much promotion of Halloween-focused projects.
There have been a number of popular Halloween and horror-themed productions in recent years. The Paranormal Activity theatrical adaptation and The Rocky Horror Show are among the few popular productions recently, so why aren’t they getting much mainstream attention? The Rocky Horror Show has some leverage over other productions, thanks to its cult classic status and fixture in pop culture; however, the Paranormal Activity production has largely gained a reputation through word of mouth.
But the biggest obstacle for Halloween productions is the theater industry’s general difficulty with the horror genre. Unlike film and television, it’s harder to scare a live audience because of the huge separation they have with the characters on stage.
The theatrical industry still struggles to survive in the digital age, as it is the entertainment industry most focused on physical, live productions. This has led to the industry maintaining a largely older demographic of people who have gone to theaters in the past or people who are interested in the performance arts in general.
Additionally, more and more people are becoming priced out of theater, with the average non-musical Broadway ticket ranging between $20 and $141.03, and the added expenses of traveling to theaters if there aren’t any locally.
