Halloween 2018: A Philly arts and culture lover’s guide

Nobody said you can’t have a high-class Halloween that’s still spooky as… well, you know.

On Thursday, October 25, the FringeArts Haas Biergarten hosts a free screening of the original Ghostbusters (no tickets required; RSVP here). Come at 7pm with a Ghostbusters-loving team for preshow trivia (winners announced after the movie). The screening starts at 8pm. It’s ADA-accessible, with open captioning.

Séance and cider

Over at Germantown’s Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, you can catch the final weekend of A Séance to Remember, by Josh Hitchens, with special effects by Jay Efran. It’s the mansion’s 13th annual murder mystery, “a live theater walking tour.” The audience moves through different rooms of the mansion, meeting a new suspect in each one. Here’s the story: a reporter on the cusp of exposing a fraudulent spiritualist has been murdered, and psychics gather to investigate — and to prove their skills are genuine, with no motive for the murder.

Audience members will collect clues along the way and can compare them to solve the murder over apple cider and cookies. The show will commence every 20 minutes starting at 5:30pm on Saturday, October 27 and 2:30 on Sunday, October 28. Check online for tickets ($16), or call 215-438-1861.

Passyunk fall fest

For a good old neighborhood Halloween fest, head to South Philly for East Passyunk Fall Fest and Spooky Saturday, happening Saturday, October 27, from 11am to 4pm around the Singing Fountain. This family and dog-friendly autumn extravaganza features costume contests (kiddo and canine), pumpkin decorating and other arts and crafts, live music, trick-or-treating, arts vendors, and a scarecrow scavenger hunt. It’s free and open to the public. And yeah, seasonal food specials will be available for purchase from East Passyunk restaurant favorites.

The Mountain King and Basic Witches

The Philadelphia Orchestra also gets into the spirit on Saturday, October 27, at 11:30am, with a Halloween Tricks and Treats program ($19 to $48) at Verizon Hall. Kensho Watanabe will conduct “an eerie tour of the Mexican traditions of Día de los Muertos,” along with Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre, and more. Costumes welcome.

For more sounds of the season, catch a performance of the world-premiere musical Basic Witches ($20) at the Arden’s Hamilton Family Arts Center, from John Egan and Robi Hager. Performances continue twice a day (6pm and 9pm) through Sunday, October 28. The show follows four famous witches on All Hallows Eve, competing for the crown of Supreme Witch of Halloween Hills. But there’s a new kind of witch in town threatening their traditions. This show, performed by drag queens and queer artists, challenges audiences to “evaluate their perspectives on gender and identity.” The theater is ADA-accessible; if you have questions or need additional accommodations, call 215-922-1122.

Here there be clowns

On Tuesday, October 30, and on Halloween itself (doors at 7:30pm, show at 8pm), Donna Oblongata brings the second annual Feast of Fools to Kensington’s Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden. It’s “an immersive, raucous show” that definitely isn’t for coulrophobia sufferers: it features 15 clowns gathered for a harvest ritual, and even though “certain clowns were explicitly disinvited from this year’s festivities, they seem to have shown up anyway.”

“The show deals with death, but is not scary and is a lot of fun,” says Oblongata. “Come prepared to get caught in a food fight.” Food and drink are part of the whole experience, which is free with a suggested donation of $10. Kids are welcome, but the show isn’t geared to youngsters. The audience moves short distances throughout the show, and the outdoor terrain might be difficult for those with mobility challenges. “We’re committed to accommodating anyone who wants to see the show,” Oblongata adds, so if you have questions, email [email protected].

Great music and ghost stories

On Tuesday, October 30, at 7pm, the Philadelphia Orchestra is back with Organ and Orchestra Halloween ($30). Remember that deliciously disturbing animated rendering of Musorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain in Disney’s 1940 Fantasia? (It was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra at our own Academy of Music, conducted by Leopold Stokowski.) Bald Mountain is back, under conductor Watanabe, along with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Ride of the Valkyries, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and more. The evening features Peter Richard Conte on the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, plus the Kimmel’s one-of-a-kind “organ pump” invitation to lie on the stage and feel the vibrations. Wheelchair-accessible seating is available; to reserve it in advance, call 215-893-1999 or 215-875-7633 TTY.

Finally, on Halloween night at 7pm, see playwright and performer Josh Hitchens’s chilling Ghost Stories ($20) at the historic Hill-Physick House, which has its own rumored hauntings. This intimate solo show shares scary supernatural experiences that Hitchens claims to have had ever since he was a child. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, it’s worth a visit (here’s the BSR review of the show’s SoLow Fest debut).