Music
‘Cthulhu: The Musical’ is Headed to Hollywood!
Music. Madness. And so, so many tentacles.
Via press release today, after months of sold-out performances in Ashland, Portland, and Seattle, Puppeteers for Fears, Oregon’s only dedicated puppet musical horror troupe, will bring its original show, Cthulhu: the Musical!, to Los Angeles for performances June 21-23 at The Hobgoblin Playhouse for the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Far from the lo-fi puppet show stereotype, the production features a full cast of five actors with elaborate custom-made puppets, a full-rock band, and projected multimedia backgrounds.
The play is adapted from the 1929 short story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” by horror icon, H.P. Lovecraft, and tells the story of his most famous creation: Cthulhu, a giant, malevolent, octopus-faced elder god who hibernates beneath the ocean, communicating to humans through their dreams, slowly driving them mad. Though Lovecraft is not as much of a household name as writers like Stephen King or Edgar Allen Poe, he is widely considered to be the creator of the genre of gothic horror, and the creatures and themes he created are highly influential on modern literature of all genres. The story PFF chose to adapt is dark, disturbing, and totally unfit for musical comedy—all qualities that make it a perfect fit for their irreverent style.
“We are always looking to turn classic themes on their head instead of rehashing tired storylines,” says PFF Artistic Director Josh Gross. “So when thinking about what our next piece might be, I sometimes add the words, ‘the musical,’ to different phrases in conversation to see how people react, if it has that magic combination of familiar hook, and new twist. When I said, ‘Cthulhu: the Musical,’ for the first time, a bunch of heads immediately turned in my direction, and strangers started asking where they could see it. So I knew we had to do that as a show, even though the challenge of turning something so dark into musical comedy was pretty daunting. It was definitely worth it though. There was a lot of comedy to be found and this show is so much fun to perform.”
Cthulhu: the Musical! will be directed by Beth Boulay, and with a script and original songs from playwright Josh Gross. Performances will feature live puppetry, a full rock band, and multimedia backgrounds courtesy of visual artist and Production Designer, Aubry Hollingshead. It stars Rachel Routh, Beth Boulay, Alyssa Mathews, and Forest Gilpin.
It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.
Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.
Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.
“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.
“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”
You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…
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