Scary plays for Halloween season; ‘Fun Home’ at Judy Bailey; ‘West Side Story’ at Summerlin Library

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Get scared this Halloween at the Las Vegas Little Theatre’s Fischer Black Box with THE WOMAN IN BLACK, a ghost play, Oct. 4-20, to haunt LVLT audiences out of their wits.

Ingeniously adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from Susan Hill’s bone-chilling ghost story, THE WOMAN IN BLACK has been scaring West End audiences for almost 30 years. London’s Daily Mail called the play, “A truly nerve shredding experience” and Time Out New York said the play provides “a pleasurable ripple of fear down one’s spine.”

A lawyer (Wayne Morton) is obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over him and his family by the specter of a woman in black. He engages a skeptical young actor (Myles Lee) to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul.

Set in an atmosphere of eerie marshes and moaning winds, this spine tingler is directed by Vegas Valley Award Nominee Alex Bassett, with a foreboding set by Chris Davies and creepy lighting by Raphael Daniels-Devost with costumes by Sabrina Perkins.

Meanwhile, on LVLT’s Mainstage the comically suspenseful, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION by John Guare, is playing Oct. 18-Nov. 3.

The play’s scary premise that we’re all related to Kevin Bacon by six degrees of separation is inspired by a true story of a young black con man, Paul, who insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy New York couple. Paul tells them he is the son of actor Sidney Poitier, and that he has just been mugged and all his money is gone. Captivated by Paul’s intelligence and his fascinating conversation, the couple invite him to stay overnight, but comes the morning the picture starts to change.

All performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at LVLT, 3920 Schiff Drive, Valley View in Chinatown. Tickets are $20. For tickets and information, visit www.LVLT.org or call the LVLT Box Office at 702-362-7996.

THE WITCHES, by classic children’s author Roald Dahl and adapted for the stage by David Wood, continues at The Rainbow Youth Theatre Oct. 4-5 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 5-6 at 2 p.m. at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St., near West Charleston. Extravagant costuming and scenery make this kids vs. witches adventure truly spooky.

The Oct. 5 matinee will have American Sign Language interpretation for the hearing impaired. For tickets, visit www.ArtsLasVegas.org or call 702-229-ARTS (2787).

A Public Fit Theatre Company’s season opens in October with the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY by Tracy Letts, Oct. 25-Nov. 17.

Beverly Weston is missing. His children descend upon the family home to help support their acerbic, pill-popping mother while they search for the once-famous poet.  Tempers are high, secrets are revealed, and a Midwest family does everything it can to avoid healing. “American Gothic” at its most hysterical.

It all happens at The Usual Place, 100 S. Maryland Parkway in the Fremont Village next to PublicUs. Evening shows at 7:30 p.m.. Matinee shows at 2 p.m. Ticket information at tickets@apublicfit.org or call 702-735-2114.

The Nevada Conservatory Theatre (NCT) at UNLV opens with the 2015 Tony Award-winning musical FUN HOME: A Family Tragicomic with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori, based on the graphic novel by lesbian comic-strip artist, Alison Bechdel, at the Judy Bayley Theatre at UNLV, Oct. 4-13.

The New York Times called Bechdel’s autobiographical story, “Heart-gripping and cathartic, FUN HOME occupies the place where we all grew up.” If it’s anyplace like where I grew up — Scary!

Also, at NCT’s Black Box Theatre THE FLICK by Annie Baker is opening Oct. 25 – Nov. 10. The 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about digital change and its heartbreaking impact on the lives of three underpaid movie theater workers is frightening in this season of recession talk.

For more information on NCT season tickets, contact the Performing Arts Center (PAC) Box Office at 702-895-ARTS (2787) or go online to www.unlv.edu/nct/season-info.

The Vegas Theatre Company at Art Square is celebrating Thanksgiving early this year with THE THANKSGIVING PLAY by Larissa Fasthorse. This Thanksgiving pageant written by a Native American playwright is a scathing satire about a troupe of scarily “woke” teaching artists trying to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. Opens Oct. 2-17. Performances are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 7:30 p.m., (No show on the first Friday of the month); Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sundays, 5 p.m. — unless otherwise noted. Tickets are $20-$35, unless otherwise noted.  All shows are at Art Square Theatre, 1025 S. First St. in the Arts District. For tickets and more information go to www.vegastheatrecompany.com.

A haunting opera at a haunted opera house, THE FACE ON THE BARROOM FLOOR by Henry Mollicone, is being presented by Vegas City Opera at the historic Amargosa Opera House, 608 Death Valley Junction in Death Valley, California, Oct. 19.

Based on a true story, this haunting opera tells two tales separated in time, but parallel in characters and theme. Events in the past repeat themselves in the present, continuing the legend of the face on the barroom floor.

Commissioned by Central City Opera in 1978 and based on the famous Herndon Davis 1936 painting on the floor of the Teller House Bar in Central City, Colorado. Vegas City Opera’s immersive production highlights the jazz and country music influenced score. Tickets are $10-$30. For tickets call 760-852-4441 or go to vegascityopera.org.

For more opera, catch Opera Las Vegas’s celebration of 20 years of opera performance — arias, duets and ensemble jewels from “Pagliacci,” “Madama Butterfly,” “Carmen,” “The Barber of Seville” and “La Boheme” performed by OLV alumni singers. Enjoy showstoppers from opera’s greatest hits at ENCORE! ENCORE! ANNIVERSARY CONCERT at Myron’s Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $35-$50. Phone 702-263-6604 or email director@operalasvegas.com or click on www.operalasvegas.com/.

Cast members of West Side Story, opening this month at Summerlin Library Theater

WEST SIDE STORY will be Signature Productions’ fall musical, Oct. 16-Nov. 16 at Summerlin Library Theatre, 1771 Inner Circle Drive, in Summerlin. Signature is Summerlin’s premier community theater with a string of Las Vegas Valley community theater awards.

With music by Leonard Bernstein, book by Arthur Laurents and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, this Broadway and Hollywood hit has ascended into the classical stratosphere.

Now, an exciting new Broadway revival promises to bring this retelling of the story of “Romeo and Juliet” back down to the gritty barrios of New York City in a radical new interpretation directed by Ivo van Hove.

Even though we expect Signature to present a more traditional staging, the recent Hurricane Maria disaster and the resulting accusations of racist neglect of Puerto Rico by the Trump administration are bound to lend a heightened tension to this story of warring street gangs, the American Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks.

Signature consistently casts some of Las Vegas’s freshest young talent and these young faces will lend a poignant relevance to this story of star- and ethnically crossed love.

Signature’s shows sell out quickly. Adult tickets are $32-$35, seniors and students $30-$33, children (8-13) $23. For more information or to purchase tickets go to www.signatureproductions.net or call Signature’s ticket line at 702-878-7529.

HAMLET’s blood-curdling ghost haunts the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s blood-drenched classic through Oct. 12.

Also, playing through Oct. 12 at the Festival are Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s pre-Jesus Christ Superstar hit, JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, EVERY BRILLANT THING, a touching comedy about suicide by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahue, and Arthur Miller’s late classic, THE PRICE, about the price of the decisions we make. For information and tickets go to https://www.bard.org/ or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.