What they are saying about us.
Making Merrye by Martin Jones Westin-www.wordsarenotenough.info
You can count on three things from a musical based on a 1960s horror flick: a homicidal maniac, lots of dank settings and a hulking, seriously deformed guy named Bruno. You’ll get all of them in Spider Baby the Musical, one of three entries mounting as part of San Diego’s annual Gam3rCon gaming convention. What’s not as evident (but every bit as present) is producer/composer Enrique Acosta’s slavish devotion to his adaptation—the Bakersfield man began working on his show in the late ’90s and has toured it through several cities from Toronto to L.A.
Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told, written by Jack Hill and made for the screen in 1964, is Acosta’s inspiration. That’s noteworthy in that the horror genre has never really found a permanent home on the live stage, although it’s worked in two notable instances (Dracula opened in London in 1924, and The Rocky Horror Show opened there in 1973; the movie would surface two years later). For horror to work in the theater, an almost reckless abandon is required; as with Rocky Horror, the piece needs to compete as never before with live convention in order to read. Acosta knows this and has created Spider Baby the Musical accordingly—it’s over-the-top, it’s loud, it’s beyond silly, it’s uneven and it looks drastically underrehearsed.
That’s why it’s so good.
Three young surviving members of the Merrye clan are subject to a mental disorder that causes loss of impulse control. Not only that; the malady only gets worse, threatening to wipe out the family. The benevolent but eerie Bruno (Charles Maze) is charged with their care during a legal flap—two distant relations want to lock the Merrye children away en route to selling the family’s land.
Murder ensues. Mayhem develops. Romantic love hangs in the balance. The kids fight to stay together. The stench of death pelts the air. Street justice takes its course. And, like the bugs Virginia (the eponymous Spider Baby, played by Hannah Joy Schwartz) is so fond of stalking, the family curse is finally squashed forever.
Or is it?
Most of the music, turned out by guitarist Jay Africa and drummer Mark Adams, is grunge or grunge-tinged, although that’s not meant to cast aspersions. Schwartz has a lovely singing voice, evident in “The Kiss” and “Uncle Peter”; and Annalice Heinz, who plays Virginia’s sister Elizabeth, has a good interpretive feel in the number “Goodnight Daddy.” Ditto for Eddie McCann, who plays brother Ralph Merrye, in his “Slippin’ Away” solo.
Click here for a trailer from Jack Hill’s Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told.
This show has a decidedly local feel to it. Helmer Jeffrey Wienckowski has a theater MFA from UCSD; McCann, who also designed the show’s lights, went to Mesa College; Heinz took a bachelor of science degree from UCSD; Mariel Higuera, who’s a hoot as love interest Ann Morse, has trained at Carlsbad’s New Village Arts. David S. Cohen, the play’s shyster Schlocker, has been around San Diego theater forever; Eliza Jane Schneider, this entry’s Emily Howe and the voice for the female characters on TV’s South Park, is new to San Diego; and Nathan Turner, who plays Emily’s brother Peter, has a theater BA from UCSD. That, coupled with the fact that this city has enormous clout in the gaming industry, helps make this show a true collaboration, complete with the madness and fun it’s designed to elicit. Very good.
Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told, written by Jack Hill and made for the screen in 1964, is Acosta’s inspiration. That’s noteworthy in that the horror genre has never really found a permanent home on the live stage, although it’s worked in two notable instances (Dracula opened in London in 1924, and The Rocky Horror Show opened there in 1973; the movie would surface two years later). For horror to work in the theater, an almost reckless abandon is required; as with Rocky Horror, the piece needs to compete as never before with live convention in order to read. Acosta knows this and has created Spider Baby the Musical accordingly—it’s over-the-top, it’s loud, it’s beyond silly, it’s uneven and it looks drastically underrehearsed.
That’s why it’s so good.
Three young surviving members of the Merrye clan are subject to a mental disorder that causes loss of impulse control. Not only that; the malady only gets worse, threatening to wipe out the family. The benevolent but eerie Bruno (Charles Maze) is charged with their care during a legal flap—two distant relations want to lock the Merrye children away en route to selling the family’s land.
Murder ensues. Mayhem develops. Romantic love hangs in the balance. The kids fight to stay together. The stench of death pelts the air. Street justice takes its course. And, like the bugs Virginia (the eponymous Spider Baby, played by Hannah Joy Schwartz) is so fond of stalking, the family curse is finally squashed forever.
Or is it?
Most of the music, turned out by guitarist Jay Africa and drummer Mark Adams, is grunge or grunge-tinged, although that’s not meant to cast aspersions. Schwartz has a lovely singing voice, evident in “The Kiss” and “Uncle Peter”; and Annalice Heinz, who plays Virginia’s sister Elizabeth, has a good interpretive feel in the number “Goodnight Daddy.” Ditto for Eddie McCann, who plays brother Ralph Merrye, in his “Slippin’ Away” solo.
Click here for a trailer from Jack Hill’s Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told.
This show has a decidedly local feel to it. Helmer Jeffrey Wienckowski has a theater MFA from UCSD; McCann, who also designed the show’s lights, went to Mesa College; Heinz took a bachelor of science degree from UCSD; Mariel Higuera, who’s a hoot as love interest Ann Morse, has trained at Carlsbad’s New Village Arts. David S. Cohen, the play’s shyster Schlocker, has been around San Diego theater forever; Eliza Jane Schneider, this entry’s Emily Howe and the voice for the female characters on TV’s South Park, is new to San Diego; and Nathan Turner, who plays Emily’s brother Peter, has a theater BA from UCSD. That, coupled with the fact that this city has enormous clout in the gaming industry, helps make this show a true collaboration, complete with the madness and fun it’s designed to elicit. Very good.
Quick Radio interviewhttp://www.monsterislandresort.org/76-viscera-film-festival-2012-and-spider-baby-the-musical/
From neo-cult to faux classic
Spider Baby the Musical
Charlene and Brenda in the Blogesphere
A drum set, a guitar, a poolroom light and fishnet with “stuff” hanging from it – these compose the lair of spiders in Spider Baby the Musical, playing only briefly at 10th Avenue Theatre as part of GamRCon. It is billed as Geek Theatre, along with I Wish My Life Was an RPG and Gam3rs. Gam3rCon boasts four floors of games, an elevator, role-playing, and rooftop parties, plus an 8 Bit Cubist Art Exhibition. What more could one want?
The Merrye clan, Ralph (McCann), Elizabeth (Heinz) and Virginia (Schwartz
with their caretaker (Maze) at the rear
Photo: Jay Africa
Saturday night I availed myself only of Spider Baby the Musical, with book by Jack Hill (writer of the original 1968 film titled Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told), musical adaptation by Enrique Acosta, lyrics by Acosta, Lorien Patton and Helen Acosta and direction by Jeffrey Wienkowski.
Spider Baby is performed in a tiny theatre space on the 4th floor, where the sound is overwhelmingly loud and the show is intentionally awful. Welcome to film camp. Think Rocky Horror, Sweeney Todd, and Aliens.
McCann as Ralph Merrye
Photo: Tim Ash
The talent is overwhelming (one, I’m convinced, intentionally singing under pitch, which is not easy) and all purposefully awful as in over-the-top. Like in Hamlet most everyone dies, and in this case the survivors, who think they’re home free, discover an awful, ghastly secret. Horrors!
The purveyors of this macabre, a bloody and black tale – which just could become some kind of cult favorite, just as is the film – are Hannah Joy Schwartz, Annalice Heinz, Mariel Higuera, Eliza Jane Schneider, Charles Maze, Eddie McCann, Nathan Turner and David S. Cohen.
Aunt Emily as played by Eliza Jane Schneider
Photo: Tim Ash
Here’s the setup: Spider Baby the Musical tells the story of the Merrye family. The three surviving members (Schwartz, Heinz, McCann) suffer from the same degenerative mental disorder, which causes the loss of impulse control. The creepy Bruno (Maze in the film’s Lon Chaney role) looks after them. Some distant relatives (Schneider and Turner) plan to institutionalize the Merrye kids and sell their land. Cohen plays the relatives’ real estate attorney, and Higuera portrays his comely assistant.
Maze as Bruno the kindly caretaker
Photo: Tim Ash
The music is generally grunge except for “Goodnight Daddy,” which the sisters sing softly to Desiccated Daddy with eerie xylophone accompaniment, a welcome relief. As with much rock music, the numbers simply stop. And as with much rock music, lyrics are for the most part obfuscated by over-amped sound design, all part of the drill. Danita Lee’s costumes are an absolute hoot. Such bustieres! Such busts! Musicians are Jay Africa and Mark Adams.
Those present in the audience Saturday night had a rip-roaring good time, the woman behind me at times overpowering the stage emanations.
Convention news
Gamercon- Kari Lane
It has the feel of Addams Family meets Repo the Genetic Opera. Enrique Acosta, the director said he wanted to “make a show I wanna see” and accurately described Spider Baby as “real rock”. The performers did an outstanding job bringing to life the twisted family that the musical is centered around. Their movement had so much conviction, that you winced when they would leap and fall to the floor. The up close and personal setting of the theater drew you in and made everything more heightened. The songs were chilling and powerful and each performer was a pleasure to watch.
It has the feel of Addams Family meets Repo the Genetic Opera. Enrique Acosta, the director said he wanted to “make a show I wanna see” and accurately described Spider Baby as “real rock”. The performers did an outstanding job bringing to life the twisted family that the musical is centered around. Their movement had so much conviction, that you winced when they would leap and fall to the floor. The up close and personal setting of the theater drew you in and made everything more heightened. The songs were chilling and powerful and each performer was a pleasure to watch.
Reviewplays.com
Spider Baby, The Musical
Lyric Hyperion Theatre
Reviewed by Jose Ruiz
Back in the 1960’s when the world made a complete turnabout, a young film maker named Jack Hill came up with the idea of making a low budget horror film about the Merrye's; a strange family involved in strange and bizarre situations. He called the film Spider Baby, and proof of its smashing success lies in the fact that almost no one has ever heard of it.
No one except Enrique Acosta, a writer, actor musician who was so taken with the film and the story when he came across it years later at the turn of this century that he decided to write a song about one of the scenes. Then he wrote another song and then another and so was born Spider Baby, The Musical.
This musical deals with death, killings, sex, madness, greed but most of all love. It’s the story of Bruno, a caretaker who promised his dying master that he would stay in the home and always take care of the children left behind. Never mind that these kids are beyond insanity. They suffer from a rare malady that prevents them from judging the right or wrong of their actions – they simply do things out of impulse seldom knowing that what they do is wrong. Bruno tells them that no matter how bad a person is, there will always be someone who will love you. They believe it, and he lives it and when they commit their atrocities Bruno gladly and lovingly cleans up after them – which has often included disposing of bodies in the past.
The focal center is Virginia, a beautiful teenager with the mind of an eight year old. She likes to play “spider” which means that she wraps someone with rope or whatever is around, just as a spider wraps a bug in its web. Then she stings the “bug”, with a 12 inch kitchen knife. The results are not pretty.
One day a group of visitors shows up at the old house to determine the disposition of the property and pass it on to the rightful heir. Their lawyer has advised the grown brother and sister that their inheritance of the house could bring them wealth, but the children will have to be institutionalized. Virginia gets the urge to play “spider” and the rest is – well, you can imagine.
Acosta has written and developed the story staying close to the original script by Jack Hill. The songs advance the story and the actors do a terrific job in a tiny space with a wonderfully imaginative set. Mark Hugo has built a skewed house structure that echoes the silhouette of the house in the film “Psycho”. He uses plain, unpainted, bare wood as if to emphasize the raw events that will transpire and lighting designer Lisa Burns uses stark illumination contrasted with heavy shadows making the tabloid foreboding and sinister. One thing that comes across is that Acosta is an uber talented composer. While many of the songs are pure rock with over amplified guitar and drums which often drown out the lyrics, there are some soulful numbers (The Kiss) – some earsplitting hard core numbers (I Don’t Want to be Elizabeth) and a poignant guitar background that uses some Mexican style chords (It’s Not Nice to Hate). The sum of the parts is a unique show that has been said to be “an acquired taste”. If you are a fan of the genre that includes the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Little Shop of Horrors and similar films you will love this show.
The excellent cast includes Enrique Acosta as Bruno, Bianca Gisselle as Virginia and Dominique Cox as the older sister Elizabeth. Jose L. Hernandez plays Ralph, their equally disturbed brother. Tanya Wilkins and Jesse Seann Atkinson play Emily and Peter, the brother and sister who stand to inherit the old mansion. Katherine Goldman plays Ann, the secretary to Attorney Schlocker, played by David Clark and Ricardo Cota is a messenger who brings the news of the visit by the attorney, but is the first victim of Virginia’s Spider game. The messenger’s role rotates for each performance as the producers invite various persons to cover the one minute role. The show is directed by Helen Acosta.
Spider Baby, The Musical
Lyric Hyperion Theatre
Reviewed by Jose Ruiz
Back in the 1960’s when the world made a complete turnabout, a young film maker named Jack Hill came up with the idea of making a low budget horror film about the Merrye's; a strange family involved in strange and bizarre situations. He called the film Spider Baby, and proof of its smashing success lies in the fact that almost no one has ever heard of it.
No one except Enrique Acosta, a writer, actor musician who was so taken with the film and the story when he came across it years later at the turn of this century that he decided to write a song about one of the scenes. Then he wrote another song and then another and so was born Spider Baby, The Musical.
This musical deals with death, killings, sex, madness, greed but most of all love. It’s the story of Bruno, a caretaker who promised his dying master that he would stay in the home and always take care of the children left behind. Never mind that these kids are beyond insanity. They suffer from a rare malady that prevents them from judging the right or wrong of their actions – they simply do things out of impulse seldom knowing that what they do is wrong. Bruno tells them that no matter how bad a person is, there will always be someone who will love you. They believe it, and he lives it and when they commit their atrocities Bruno gladly and lovingly cleans up after them – which has often included disposing of bodies in the past.
The focal center is Virginia, a beautiful teenager with the mind of an eight year old. She likes to play “spider” which means that she wraps someone with rope or whatever is around, just as a spider wraps a bug in its web. Then she stings the “bug”, with a 12 inch kitchen knife. The results are not pretty.
One day a group of visitors shows up at the old house to determine the disposition of the property and pass it on to the rightful heir. Their lawyer has advised the grown brother and sister that their inheritance of the house could bring them wealth, but the children will have to be institutionalized. Virginia gets the urge to play “spider” and the rest is – well, you can imagine.
Acosta has written and developed the story staying close to the original script by Jack Hill. The songs advance the story and the actors do a terrific job in a tiny space with a wonderfully imaginative set. Mark Hugo has built a skewed house structure that echoes the silhouette of the house in the film “Psycho”. He uses plain, unpainted, bare wood as if to emphasize the raw events that will transpire and lighting designer Lisa Burns uses stark illumination contrasted with heavy shadows making the tabloid foreboding and sinister. One thing that comes across is that Acosta is an uber talented composer. While many of the songs are pure rock with over amplified guitar and drums which often drown out the lyrics, there are some soulful numbers (The Kiss) – some earsplitting hard core numbers (I Don’t Want to be Elizabeth) and a poignant guitar background that uses some Mexican style chords (It’s Not Nice to Hate). The sum of the parts is a unique show that has been said to be “an acquired taste”. If you are a fan of the genre that includes the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Little Shop of Horrors and similar films you will love this show.
The excellent cast includes Enrique Acosta as Bruno, Bianca Gisselle as Virginia and Dominique Cox as the older sister Elizabeth. Jose L. Hernandez plays Ralph, their equally disturbed brother. Tanya Wilkins and Jesse Seann Atkinson play Emily and Peter, the brother and sister who stand to inherit the old mansion. Katherine Goldman plays Ann, the secretary to Attorney Schlocker, played by David Clark and Ricardo Cota is a messenger who brings the news of the visit by the attorney, but is the first victim of Virginia’s Spider game. The messenger’s role rotates for each performance as the producers invite various persons to cover the one minute role. The show is directed by Helen Acosta.
Spider Baby the Musical
AFS Entertainment at the Lyric Hyperion Theatre Café
Reviewed by Jennie Webb Backstage.com
DECEMBER 02, 2010
ho doesn't love a good old-fashioned family musical—especially one based on a '60s cult horror film in which a family suffers from a degenerative disease that manifests itself in decidedly unsavory ways? The rock 'n' roll incarnation of Jack Hill's "Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told" by Enrique Acosta is a sort of scattered, uneven fun-fest that, though obviously a labor of love and despite troublesome gaffes, ends up as a scrappy, spirited hoot.
We learn early on in this quirky tale told by a distant relative that the last living survivors of the Merrye clan are afflicted by a condition that strikes around age 10, causing the once-innocent children to regress into a violent, prehuman state. Things get worse as they age, so sweet young Elizabeth (Dominique Cox) reluctantly acts as the right hand of caretaker Bruno (writer-composer Acosta), helping to dissuade her elder sister Virginia (Bianca Gisselle) from playing "spider" with unwitting houseguests—yes, it involves trapping and consuming them. And then there's brother Ralph (Jose L. Hernandez), a brawny beast who's quite understandably mistaken for a baboon when estranged family members come to call. It's this visit by Uncle Peter and Aunt Emily (Jesse
Seann Atkinson and Tanya Wilkins), who have designs to take over the estate from the children, that awakens animal urges all around and ultimately shatters the Merryes' perverted domesticity.
Under Helen Acosta's direction, the production has a great energy, and each performer dives into the material unabashedly. Acosta's tunes include lovely dysfunctional lullabies ("It's Not Nice to Hate" and "Children"), haunting power ballads (Hernandez rocking it on "Slippin' Away), and atonal choral pieces ("What Are They Thinking"). Hernandez, Gisselle, and Atkinson are especially strong vocally; and nods to drummer Nick Clark and guitarist Dyllan Oakeley, who play live on—puzzlingly—only some numbers. But where "Spider Baby the Musical" gets wobbly is its book. Here, Acosta misses the opportunity to tie together all the creepily appealing bits that are thrown at us. Instead, dialogue too often seems arbitrary and even incoherent; he's not helped by confusing staging. But in the end, family is what matters. And this one's got its heart in the right place.
By Dorianne Emmerton, Mooney on Theatre
If you love Rocky Horror, go see Spider Baby the Musical. I happen to love Rocky Horror – and Evil Dead movies and Elvira and all sorts of horror-flavoured kitsch – so I very much enjoyed Spider Baby.
If you didn’t know what you were in for before sitting down in the audience you knew it as soon as the lights came up. The first thing you see is the four female cast members dressed in slinky black slips vamping their way through the opening number. They are sexy and scary in that camp sort of way.
The musical is based on a cult horror film, Spider Baby. The Merrye family is afflicted with a degenerative disorder that causes them to start to mentally regress from about the age of ten until they are blood-lusting savages. The final generation, two girls Virginia and Elizabeth (Katie Aquino, Dominique Cox) and a boy Ralph (Jose Hernandez) are being looked after by their caretaker Bruno (Enrique Acosta, also the writer.) He loves them, and tries to minimize the damage they do in order to protect them.
Onto the scene come a distant relative, Emily, greedy for their property (Tanya Wilkins), her brother Peter (Jesse Atkins), her lawyer Mr. Schlocker (David Clark) and the lawyer’s assistant Ann (Katherine Goldman.) Ann falls for Peter… Unfortunately so does Virginia. Virginia wants to “play spider” with Peter: this is a game that usually ends up with the spider stinging her victim – to death.
The stage wasn’t miked so some of the lyrics were a bit lost, and some of the cast were better singers than they were actors. But who cares – this is fun and games with a lot of blood and sex. For a Fringe show, you can’t get much more Rocky Horroresque than this.
AFS Entertainment at the Lyric Hyperion Theatre Café
Reviewed by Jennie Webb Backstage.com
DECEMBER 02, 2010
ho doesn't love a good old-fashioned family musical—especially one based on a '60s cult horror film in which a family suffers from a degenerative disease that manifests itself in decidedly unsavory ways? The rock 'n' roll incarnation of Jack Hill's "Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told" by Enrique Acosta is a sort of scattered, uneven fun-fest that, though obviously a labor of love and despite troublesome gaffes, ends up as a scrappy, spirited hoot.
We learn early on in this quirky tale told by a distant relative that the last living survivors of the Merrye clan are afflicted by a condition that strikes around age 10, causing the once-innocent children to regress into a violent, prehuman state. Things get worse as they age, so sweet young Elizabeth (Dominique Cox) reluctantly acts as the right hand of caretaker Bruno (writer-composer Acosta), helping to dissuade her elder sister Virginia (Bianca Gisselle) from playing "spider" with unwitting houseguests—yes, it involves trapping and consuming them. And then there's brother Ralph (Jose L. Hernandez), a brawny beast who's quite understandably mistaken for a baboon when estranged family members come to call. It's this visit by Uncle Peter and Aunt Emily (Jesse
Seann Atkinson and Tanya Wilkins), who have designs to take over the estate from the children, that awakens animal urges all around and ultimately shatters the Merryes' perverted domesticity.
Under Helen Acosta's direction, the production has a great energy, and each performer dives into the material unabashedly. Acosta's tunes include lovely dysfunctional lullabies ("It's Not Nice to Hate" and "Children"), haunting power ballads (Hernandez rocking it on "Slippin' Away), and atonal choral pieces ("What Are They Thinking"). Hernandez, Gisselle, and Atkinson are especially strong vocally; and nods to drummer Nick Clark and guitarist Dyllan Oakeley, who play live on—puzzlingly—only some numbers. But where "Spider Baby the Musical" gets wobbly is its book. Here, Acosta misses the opportunity to tie together all the creepily appealing bits that are thrown at us. Instead, dialogue too often seems arbitrary and even incoherent; he's not helped by confusing staging. But in the end, family is what matters. And this one's got its heart in the right place.
By Dorianne Emmerton, Mooney on Theatre
If you love Rocky Horror, go see Spider Baby the Musical. I happen to love Rocky Horror – and Evil Dead movies and Elvira and all sorts of horror-flavoured kitsch – so I very much enjoyed Spider Baby.
If you didn’t know what you were in for before sitting down in the audience you knew it as soon as the lights came up. The first thing you see is the four female cast members dressed in slinky black slips vamping their way through the opening number. They are sexy and scary in that camp sort of way.
The musical is based on a cult horror film, Spider Baby. The Merrye family is afflicted with a degenerative disorder that causes them to start to mentally regress from about the age of ten until they are blood-lusting savages. The final generation, two girls Virginia and Elizabeth (Katie Aquino, Dominique Cox) and a boy Ralph (Jose Hernandez) are being looked after by their caretaker Bruno (Enrique Acosta, also the writer.) He loves them, and tries to minimize the damage they do in order to protect them.
Onto the scene come a distant relative, Emily, greedy for their property (Tanya Wilkins), her brother Peter (Jesse Atkins), her lawyer Mr. Schlocker (David Clark) and the lawyer’s assistant Ann (Katherine Goldman.) Ann falls for Peter… Unfortunately so does Virginia. Virginia wants to “play spider” with Peter: this is a game that usually ends up with the spider stinging her victim – to death.
The stage wasn’t miked so some of the lyrics were a bit lost, and some of the cast were better singers than they were actors. But who cares – this is fun and games with a lot of blood and sex. For a Fringe show, you can’t get much more Rocky Horroresque than this.
Web-Savvy: Horror, comedy and music crawl into Onyx Theatre in ‘Spider Baby the Musical’
Nursery rhyme, meet bloody crimes.
You may not care to lull your little tyke to sleep with this tale of an itsy-bitsy psycho spider with incestuous yearnings and homicidal tendencies.
“They really wanted to scare the living crap out of people,” says 19-year-old Katie Aquino, who plays the title lunatic in the touring “Spider Baby the Musical,” opening tonight at the Onyx Theatre.
“Within five seconds, I’m killing someone. There’s blood everywhere.”
Do emotions matter amid the splatter? “It’s what I like to call a sucker punch,” says “Spider Baby” producer/composer Enrique Acosta. “If you lead an audience down a garden path with blood and boobs and salaciousness, and they enjoy it on that level, then you give them some real pathos, it hits them so much harder.”
Adapted from the bloody-funny-freaky 1968 film dubbed “The Maddest Story Ever Told” — with legendary Lon Chaney Jr. in his final performance — the musical bears a surface resemblance to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and its horror-themed camp.
However, “Spider,” which has played sporadically in America and Canada, owes more to “Sweeney Todd’s” demonic zeal.
“Our vision is as a horror-rock musical, but good horror does have humor,” says director Helen Acosta, the producer’s wife. “The entire genre has been informed by ‘Rocky,’ and while ‘Rocky’ is amazing, a horror musical should be scary and dangerous.”
Though that still points toward cult status, Enrique Acosta notes that “if it became a giant hit, I’d cry myself to sleep on a pillow full of $100 bills.”
Dementia and perversion fans, you’ve hit the gory, grisly jackpot. “Spider Baby” is “The Addams Family” on acid:
In a decaying mansion under a guardian’s care, three orphaned siblings suffer from “Merrye Syndrome,” a genetic affliction in which they “mentally, socially and physically regress down the evolutionary ladder” until they mix playful innocence with brutal madness.
Result: murder, cannibalism and sexual deviancy.
Virginia, our arachnid-oriented heroine, eats bugs, moves with a spider’s deliberate, creepy grace, traps victims in her rope “web” and “stings” them to death using butcher knives. Plus there’s Ginny’s icky attraction to “Uncle Peter,” turning the usual predator/victim scenario inside out, expressed in a song of unsettling seduction.
“That threw me back when I first heard about the show, because Uncle Peter is tied up in my spider web and I touch him for the first time,” Aquino says with a shudder in her voice.
“It’s awkward for me and the guy playing Peter, and we have to make sure it’s even more uncomfortable for the audience. One night in San Francisco, a guy in the audience was going, ‘Gross, gross’ the entire time, turning away. My body shakes during the song.”
Another sibling, Ralph — sexually advanced but mentally stunted — communicates with grunts and leers and moves through the house on a dumb waiter. Mysterious aunts and uncles who have regressed even further live in the cellar, and in a bedroom is kept the skeleton of the family’s father, which Virginia unfailingly smooches good night.
” The caretaker is dealing with the fact that these children are degenerating,” Helen Acosta says. “He gets a letter saying distant relatives are coming to the house with a lawyer. They’re trying to put the kids away, and it all ends in tragedy. Everybody blows up.”
Considering the characters, that seems the happiest ending possible. Not that “Spider” doesn’t tug on some bloody heartstrings. “When I first saw the film and the monologue by Lon Chaney Jr. as the caretaker , where he expressed his unconditional love for the children, it had me in tears,” says Enrique Acosta. “It’s what got me started on the first song, it sparked the whole thing.”
Vegas is only a tour stop, but the alternative-minded Onyx could be an ideal venue for “Spider” to settle into an open-ended web as a companion piece to its ongoing “Naked Boys Singing” after the recent “Altar Boyz” failed to generate audience fervor.
“If we were offered a permanent spot, we would consider it,” Enrique Acosta says. “The longest run we have is an eight-week run in Los Angeles. Right now, we’re in our infancy, and we want to be seen by as many people as possible. But there’s a certain appeal to having a permanent home.”
Barring that, “Spider Baby” will have to creep out audiences crawling city to city. “I was very scared for my mom to see me in the show because it’s so extreme,” Aquino says.
“When she first saw it in Fresno Calif. , she was freaked out, like, ‘I can’t believe you’re OK with this.’ And I said, ‘Eh, it’s acting.’ ”
One would hope so. Otherwise …
Nursery rhyme, meet bloody crimes.
You may not care to lull your little tyke to sleep with this tale of an itsy-bitsy psycho spider with incestuous yearnings and homicidal tendencies.
“They really wanted to scare the living crap out of people,” says 19-year-old Katie Aquino, who plays the title lunatic in the touring “Spider Baby the Musical,” opening tonight at the Onyx Theatre.
“Within five seconds, I’m killing someone. There’s blood everywhere.”
Do emotions matter amid the splatter? “It’s what I like to call a sucker punch,” says “Spider Baby” producer/composer Enrique Acosta. “If you lead an audience down a garden path with blood and boobs and salaciousness, and they enjoy it on that level, then you give them some real pathos, it hits them so much harder.”
Adapted from the bloody-funny-freaky 1968 film dubbed “The Maddest Story Ever Told” — with legendary Lon Chaney Jr. in his final performance — the musical bears a surface resemblance to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and its horror-themed camp.
However, “Spider,” which has played sporadically in America and Canada, owes more to “Sweeney Todd’s” demonic zeal.
“Our vision is as a horror-rock musical, but good horror does have humor,” says director Helen Acosta, the producer’s wife. “The entire genre has been informed by ‘Rocky,’ and while ‘Rocky’ is amazing, a horror musical should be scary and dangerous.”
Though that still points toward cult status, Enrique Acosta notes that “if it became a giant hit, I’d cry myself to sleep on a pillow full of $100 bills.”
Dementia and perversion fans, you’ve hit the gory, grisly jackpot. “Spider Baby” is “The Addams Family” on acid:
In a decaying mansion under a guardian’s care, three orphaned siblings suffer from “Merrye Syndrome,” a genetic affliction in which they “mentally, socially and physically regress down the evolutionary ladder” until they mix playful innocence with brutal madness.
Result: murder, cannibalism and sexual deviancy.
Virginia, our arachnid-oriented heroine, eats bugs, moves with a spider’s deliberate, creepy grace, traps victims in her rope “web” and “stings” them to death using butcher knives. Plus there’s Ginny’s icky attraction to “Uncle Peter,” turning the usual predator/victim scenario inside out, expressed in a song of unsettling seduction.
“That threw me back when I first heard about the show, because Uncle Peter is tied up in my spider web and I touch him for the first time,” Aquino says with a shudder in her voice.
“It’s awkward for me and the guy playing Peter, and we have to make sure it’s even more uncomfortable for the audience. One night in San Francisco, a guy in the audience was going, ‘Gross, gross’ the entire time, turning away. My body shakes during the song.”
Another sibling, Ralph — sexually advanced but mentally stunted — communicates with grunts and leers and moves through the house on a dumb waiter. Mysterious aunts and uncles who have regressed even further live in the cellar, and in a bedroom is kept the skeleton of the family’s father, which Virginia unfailingly smooches good night.
” The caretaker is dealing with the fact that these children are degenerating,” Helen Acosta says. “He gets a letter saying distant relatives are coming to the house with a lawyer. They’re trying to put the kids away, and it all ends in tragedy. Everybody blows up.”
Considering the characters, that seems the happiest ending possible. Not that “Spider” doesn’t tug on some bloody heartstrings. “When I first saw the film and the monologue by Lon Chaney Jr. as the caretaker , where he expressed his unconditional love for the children, it had me in tears,” says Enrique Acosta. “It’s what got me started on the first song, it sparked the whole thing.”
Vegas is only a tour stop, but the alternative-minded Onyx could be an ideal venue for “Spider” to settle into an open-ended web as a companion piece to its ongoing “Naked Boys Singing” after the recent “Altar Boyz” failed to generate audience fervor.
“If we were offered a permanent spot, we would consider it,” Enrique Acosta says. “The longest run we have is an eight-week run in Los Angeles. Right now, we’re in our infancy, and we want to be seen by as many people as possible. But there’s a certain appeal to having a permanent home.”
Barring that, “Spider Baby” will have to creep out audiences crawling city to city. “I was very scared for my mom to see me in the show because it’s so extreme,” Aquino says.
“When she first saw it in Fresno Calif. , she was freaked out, like, ‘I can’t believe you’re OK with this.’ And I said, ‘Eh, it’s acting.’ ”
One would hope so. Otherwise …
SF Examiner Review
SF Fringe Festival: "Spider Baby" seems to have a following
September 18, 12:27 PM SF GLBT Arts Examiner Kevin M. Thomas
Take a bite out of “Spider Baby the musical” before it’s gone from the San Francisco Fringe Festival.
It only plays through Sunday and then its off to territories unknown. Well maybe not. According to show creator Enrique Acosta, “We’re going to the take lessons learned from this tour and retool the show for next year.” He says, hoping the musical comes back to San Francisco maybe next summer, if not very likely Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chico.
Acosta says the show has been a very big hit in the smaller cities like Chico as they have no or little alternative theatre.
And somewhere along the line, “Spider Baby” has developed a strong following in which some of its songs have become popular outside the show, including the ballads “The Kiss” and “Children” as well as the hard rock techno track, “Slipping Away.”
Based on the cult classic by Jack Hill (“Foxy Brown,” “Coffey”) “Spider Baby the musical” tells the story of the Merrye family. Each member suffers from the same degenerative mental disorder which causes a loss of impulse control. Some distant relatives want to institutionalize them and sell their land.
And while it doesn’t quite have a gay theme, Acosta points out that “underneath the layer of horror and bloodshed there is a story about unconditional love that show appeal to all audiences.”
If that wasn’t enough, some of the cast members are hotties.
“Spider Baby” finishes its Fringe run this Saturday at 7pm and Sunday at 1pm at the Exit on Taylor Theatre. See more about this and other fringe shows at www.sffringe.org.
San Francisco Bay Times Review
Spider Baby the Musical - Family Dis-Chord
by Tom W. Kelly
October 1, 2009
Given the anything-goes nature of the 2009 SF Fringe Festival, the Bay Area premiere of Spider Baby the Musical introduces the audience to a bit of sensationalism via inbreeding, sexual repression, murder, and cannibalism. Remember the old-fashioned musical where boy meets girl, loses her, then gets her back? Well, forget it. This authorized adaptation (by Enrique and Helen Acosta) of the cult classic horror film Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told by Jack Hill takes the audience on a funny-yet-scary journey, best experienced vicariously. And though occasionally a bumpy ride, this 60-minute musical bursts with ambitious creativity, kooky characters, and a kind of love story.
The Merrye family has a secret. The three “adorable” children, hovering somewhere around puberty, are collectively manifesting a degenerative mental disorder that causes a lack of impulse control. In other words, playtime is a bloody mess. Their kindly guardian can keep them separate from society, but he can’t prevent authority-figure strangers from visiting. And staying the night. And dying all over the place. But hey, what family doesn’t have its problems?
The talented ensemble works together beautifully and includes Katie Aquino, Sarah Phillips, Lindsey Ahern, Jose L. Hernandez, Cristofer Sanders, Tanya Wilkins, and Teryl Brouillette. They commit fully and successfully to the play’s careening storyline and insane constructs. But, though obviously well rehearsed, the strong cast was occasionally difficult to understand — overpowered by the music and/or loud street traffic and/or sirens outside.
Adaptor Enrique Acosta squeezes a full-length horror film into a 60-minute theatrical script. The economical storyline whisks the show along, but becomes a bit too sparse in places. Some opportunities for a bit more depth and/or delineation are missed to fit into the Festival’s one-hour max schedule. Certainly Acosta will learn much from this short run and its audiences, and he’ll expand the script into a longer format, thereby allowing it to breathe and flourish.
Directors Enrique and Helen Acosta keep the action moving at a break-neck pace. Or is that broken-neck? And they’ve staged the show with razor-sharp acuity — the audience never gets a moment to sit back and say “WTF?!” The lighting design is excellent, using festival lighting in abundantly creative ways to suggest the play’s eerie moods and multiple locations. And the complete set design uses only four wooden cubes! Music in the show includes Ron Stein’s title song, Lorien Patton’s lyrics for “The Kiss,” and all other songs by Enrique Acosta and Brent Simms. Most of the songs, though, don’t further the plot so much as reiterate it. And given the bare bones nature of the Fringe, taped music provides a somewhat flat musical back-up for the energetic actor-singers.
Overall, Spider Baby the Musical shows great promise as a laughter- and fright-filled alternative to traditional musicals. Ya just gotta love the Fringe Festival!
Here are our favorite 2009 San Francisco Fringe Festival audience reviews. For all the reviews see the SFFringe website.
Reviewer: Mike Nesmith
5 Stars
I saw this in a nearly empty house. I can't figure out why more people aren't going to see this.
You've got half naked hot ladies
You've got murder
You've got sex
And just when you think it's THAT kind of show it makes you cry like Old Yeller.
I loved the music I loved the story I loved the acting I loved everything. This deserves to be a cult show.
Reviewer: George Wald
4 Stars
Absolutely loved it. Out of control mayhem and rocking good time
Reviewer: Anna K
4 Stars
I loved it! It was fun and creepy and just cheesy enough to be true to the source material
Reviewer: Craig Kensek
4 Stars
Got Arachnophobia?
“Spider Baby, the Musical” is based on a 1968 b-grade movie, “Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told”. Quite entertaining. Theatrical talent exists in Bakersfield, California. A large cast enjoy themselves on stage. The singing varies, but it’s a rock musical. You may never think of spiders in quite the same way.
Reviewer: nEO-sURREALIST aGENT #1
4 Stars
A terrific and FAITHFUL adaptation of the cult classic film, this cast was able to pull a full energy performance out of their sleeves even for a 2:30 matinee on Sat. A talented cast of singers with strong acting abilities and good tunes. A fun, great show, but as a famous review from Fringes past once said, "Tighten up those scene transitions, Dawgs!
"Oh baby! 'Spider Baby The Musical' returns to Bakersfield
By Teresa Adamo, Mas Magazine
Friday, July 31, 2009 - 09:21
Just how well do you know your barista?
Walk into the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on California Avenue, and you’ll smell the java brewing away at the in-house cafe.
Ready to happily serve you the latte of your choice is Enrique Acosta — and he can whip up a caffeinated beverage with the best of ‘em. Little do most of his customers know, however, Acosta can also whip up a full-blown musical production — which he’s done with “Spider Baby The Musical,” an adaptation of director/writer Jack Hill’s 1964 dark comedy horror film.
Just how well do you know your barista?
Walk into the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on California Avenue, and you’ll smell the java brewing away at the in-house cafe.
Ready to happily serve you the latte of your choice is Enrique Acosta — and he can whip up a caffeinated beverage with the best of ‘em. Little do most of his customers know, however, Acosta can also whip up a full-blown musical production — which he’s done with “Spider Baby The Musical,” an adaptation of director/writer Jack Hill’s 1964 dark comedy horror film.
As a fan of horror movies, Acosta kept hearing about this “Spider Baby,” and upon reading several letters praising its greatness in a magazine devoted to fans of the genre, he just had to see the film.
“I expected it to be cheesy, maybe even very cheesy,” Acosta said. “But I found it to really have a story ... an emotional sense to it — and at the same time, it had a love/romance angle.”
What turned out to be actor Lon Chaney Jr.’s last film would turn out to be local composer Acosta’s inspiration to write some “Spider Baby” songs for what he originally envisioned as a concept album.
Five years ago, Acosta, 39 — who plays guitar, bass and percussion — began piecing together some words and music in a nod to “Spider Baby,” which depicts the sufferings of the Merrye family. Each family member must contend with the same degenerative mental disorder, which causes a loss of impulse control.
What follows are the conflicts that arise when distant relatives want to institutionalize the Merrye children and sell off their land — but the kids won’t have any of that.
As his songwriting progressed, Acosta’s wife, Helen, also 39 — a professor of communication at Bakersfield College for the last 14 years as well as a former community theatre director — told her husband of 17 years that his creation seemed more like a musical score than a concept album.
“It just had all the elements of a musical — it already had the story and the songs went with that,”shesaid.
Next, however, Acosta realized that he would need Hill’s blessing (and permission) to officially turn his horror movie into a musical.
After a few weeks, Acosta was able to track Hill down and made a phone call to him, asking for thegreenlight.
“He just laughed and told me he gets asked for that from people probably once a month — what made me think I would be any different?” Acosta said. “I told him, ‘Well, I’m not in it to make money — this isn’t about profits, it’s about the art.’”
Plus, he told Hill, he had already wrote some songs to prove his creativity and dedication to the possibility of the project.
When Hill requested Acosta send him some recordings, well, there weren’t any.
Not yet, that is.
“So I played the songs for him over the phone,” Acosta said.
Apparently pleased by what he heard, Hill said he was OK with Acosta’s “Spider Baby” musical to proceed.
And so it did.
Acosta began shopping his now authorized, “Spider Baby The Musical” baby to local directors and producers. Because he didn’t have any experience with such things, he really just wanted someone else to “take over the reins.”
But no luck.
So Acosta took on the full scope of duties to get his musical, which includes a new arrangement of Ronald Stein’s film theme, off the ground. Acosta and fellow Bakersfield composer, Brent Simms put what they call an “Ozzfest-worthy, rock edge” to the score.
In other words: Headbangers, rejoice!
“Spider Baby The Musical” first showed at the Empty Space Theatre, just blocks away from the Acostas’ home. And although the show didn’t turn out exactly as its creator had hoped — which he takes full responsibility for — it was a definite learning experience, Acosta said.
The couple then took “Spider Baby” up to Northern California where another drama troupe took a stab at the production.
Again, the show was not quite the artistry Acosta envisioned.
“They took out several songs,” he said.
And that’s when the couple — who first met at an open poetry night — decided to take real ownership of “Spider Baby,” the musical, which now includes numbers Acosta says have “a rock edge, but still playing up the horror and tenderness.”
“If it didn’t have our fingerprints on it, then we didn’t want to do it any more,” said Helen.
From there, the show — and the Acostas — hit the fringe festival circuit, meaning venues specializing in alternative or non-mainstream entertainment. Acosta’s “Spider Baby” has found enthusiastic “fringe” audiences up and down the state of California, including the popular Rogue Festival in Fresno earlier this year.
They’ve also learned how to hone the show to fit the various time limits and facilities at each festival location.
“We’ve become really efficient and really focused,” Helen said.
“We cut the fat,” Acosta added.
Hill has since seen Acosta’s production in its new-and-improved state, giving even more than his blessing now.
“After Jack saw the performance in LA, he came up to me, shook my hand and told me I’d done a great job,” said Acosta, adding that Hill now has his agent on the hunt for a “real” producer for the show.
Meanwhile, the Acostas are thoroughly enjoying the traveling they’ve been able to do together because of “Spider Baby” — it’s Acosta’s barista wages, meager though they are, that finance the endeavor — as well as meeting a whole host of other creative types.
Although the Acostas are not yet able to pay the actors in “Spider Baby” in the traditional sense (i.e., a paycheck), they are compensated with free hotel rooms when on the road and at least one daily meal courtesy of the couple.
The actors — a hybrid mix of Bakersfield and Los Angeles residents — also receive a share of the box office sales and merchandise earnings as a way to give the cast more ownership of the show, according to Acosta.
“We try to make it out as a working vacation,” he said. “These actors are all great, I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them — we couldn’t do this without them.”
Next on the “Spider Baby” musical agenda will be stints right here in Kern County.
First, a return to the Empty Space Theatre (Friday and Saturday, Aug. 7-8), followed by shows at the BeeKay Theatre in Tehachapi (Aug. 14-15) during the Mountain Festival.
In September, “Spider Baby” travels to the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The Acostas are negotiating for additional performances in in Las Vegas, Nev.; Ashland, Ore.; Flagstaff, Az.; and Albuquerque, NM.
Whether or not this homegrown musical production “makes it big” or not, this couple has already accomplished even more with this “baby” than they ever imagined.
“If and when this is a success, then that would be great, but it’s not about that,” Acosta said. “I’d be ecstatic if ‘Spider Baby’ does even better than it already is, but I’m not trying to make a living from it — art isn’t about making a dollar, it’s about making art.”
SF Fringe Festival: "Spider Baby" seems to have a following
September 18, 12:27 PM SF GLBT Arts Examiner Kevin M. Thomas
Take a bite out of “Spider Baby the musical” before it’s gone from the San Francisco Fringe Festival.
It only plays through Sunday and then its off to territories unknown. Well maybe not. According to show creator Enrique Acosta, “We’re going to the take lessons learned from this tour and retool the show for next year.” He says, hoping the musical comes back to San Francisco maybe next summer, if not very likely Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chico.
Acosta says the show has been a very big hit in the smaller cities like Chico as they have no or little alternative theatre.
And somewhere along the line, “Spider Baby” has developed a strong following in which some of its songs have become popular outside the show, including the ballads “The Kiss” and “Children” as well as the hard rock techno track, “Slipping Away.”
Based on the cult classic by Jack Hill (“Foxy Brown,” “Coffey”) “Spider Baby the musical” tells the story of the Merrye family. Each member suffers from the same degenerative mental disorder which causes a loss of impulse control. Some distant relatives want to institutionalize them and sell their land.
And while it doesn’t quite have a gay theme, Acosta points out that “underneath the layer of horror and bloodshed there is a story about unconditional love that show appeal to all audiences.”
If that wasn’t enough, some of the cast members are hotties.
“Spider Baby” finishes its Fringe run this Saturday at 7pm and Sunday at 1pm at the Exit on Taylor Theatre. See more about this and other fringe shows at www.sffringe.org.
San Francisco Bay Times Review
Spider Baby the Musical - Family Dis-Chord
by Tom W. Kelly
October 1, 2009
Given the anything-goes nature of the 2009 SF Fringe Festival, the Bay Area premiere of Spider Baby the Musical introduces the audience to a bit of sensationalism via inbreeding, sexual repression, murder, and cannibalism. Remember the old-fashioned musical where boy meets girl, loses her, then gets her back? Well, forget it. This authorized adaptation (by Enrique and Helen Acosta) of the cult classic horror film Spider Baby: The Maddest Story Ever Told by Jack Hill takes the audience on a funny-yet-scary journey, best experienced vicariously. And though occasionally a bumpy ride, this 60-minute musical bursts with ambitious creativity, kooky characters, and a kind of love story.
The Merrye family has a secret. The three “adorable” children, hovering somewhere around puberty, are collectively manifesting a degenerative mental disorder that causes a lack of impulse control. In other words, playtime is a bloody mess. Their kindly guardian can keep them separate from society, but he can’t prevent authority-figure strangers from visiting. And staying the night. And dying all over the place. But hey, what family doesn’t have its problems?
The talented ensemble works together beautifully and includes Katie Aquino, Sarah Phillips, Lindsey Ahern, Jose L. Hernandez, Cristofer Sanders, Tanya Wilkins, and Teryl Brouillette. They commit fully and successfully to the play’s careening storyline and insane constructs. But, though obviously well rehearsed, the strong cast was occasionally difficult to understand — overpowered by the music and/or loud street traffic and/or sirens outside.
Adaptor Enrique Acosta squeezes a full-length horror film into a 60-minute theatrical script. The economical storyline whisks the show along, but becomes a bit too sparse in places. Some opportunities for a bit more depth and/or delineation are missed to fit into the Festival’s one-hour max schedule. Certainly Acosta will learn much from this short run and its audiences, and he’ll expand the script into a longer format, thereby allowing it to breathe and flourish.
Directors Enrique and Helen Acosta keep the action moving at a break-neck pace. Or is that broken-neck? And they’ve staged the show with razor-sharp acuity — the audience never gets a moment to sit back and say “WTF?!” The lighting design is excellent, using festival lighting in abundantly creative ways to suggest the play’s eerie moods and multiple locations. And the complete set design uses only four wooden cubes! Music in the show includes Ron Stein’s title song, Lorien Patton’s lyrics for “The Kiss,” and all other songs by Enrique Acosta and Brent Simms. Most of the songs, though, don’t further the plot so much as reiterate it. And given the bare bones nature of the Fringe, taped music provides a somewhat flat musical back-up for the energetic actor-singers.
Overall, Spider Baby the Musical shows great promise as a laughter- and fright-filled alternative to traditional musicals. Ya just gotta love the Fringe Festival!
Here are our favorite 2009 San Francisco Fringe Festival audience reviews. For all the reviews see the SFFringe website.
Reviewer: Mike Nesmith
5 Stars
I saw this in a nearly empty house. I can't figure out why more people aren't going to see this.
You've got half naked hot ladies
You've got murder
You've got sex
And just when you think it's THAT kind of show it makes you cry like Old Yeller.
I loved the music I loved the story I loved the acting I loved everything. This deserves to be a cult show.
Reviewer: George Wald
4 Stars
Absolutely loved it. Out of control mayhem and rocking good time
Reviewer: Anna K
4 Stars
I loved it! It was fun and creepy and just cheesy enough to be true to the source material
Reviewer: Craig Kensek
4 Stars
Got Arachnophobia?
“Spider Baby, the Musical” is based on a 1968 b-grade movie, “Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told”. Quite entertaining. Theatrical talent exists in Bakersfield, California. A large cast enjoy themselves on stage. The singing varies, but it’s a rock musical. You may never think of spiders in quite the same way.
Reviewer: nEO-sURREALIST aGENT #1
4 Stars
A terrific and FAITHFUL adaptation of the cult classic film, this cast was able to pull a full energy performance out of their sleeves even for a 2:30 matinee on Sat. A talented cast of singers with strong acting abilities and good tunes. A fun, great show, but as a famous review from Fringes past once said, "Tighten up those scene transitions, Dawgs!
"Oh baby! 'Spider Baby The Musical' returns to Bakersfield
By Teresa Adamo, Mas Magazine
Friday, July 31, 2009 - 09:21
Just how well do you know your barista?
Walk into the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on California Avenue, and you’ll smell the java brewing away at the in-house cafe.
Ready to happily serve you the latte of your choice is Enrique Acosta — and he can whip up a caffeinated beverage with the best of ‘em. Little do most of his customers know, however, Acosta can also whip up a full-blown musical production — which he’s done with “Spider Baby The Musical,” an adaptation of director/writer Jack Hill’s 1964 dark comedy horror film.
Just how well do you know your barista?
Walk into the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on California Avenue, and you’ll smell the java brewing away at the in-house cafe.
Ready to happily serve you the latte of your choice is Enrique Acosta — and he can whip up a caffeinated beverage with the best of ‘em. Little do most of his customers know, however, Acosta can also whip up a full-blown musical production — which he’s done with “Spider Baby The Musical,” an adaptation of director/writer Jack Hill’s 1964 dark comedy horror film.
As a fan of horror movies, Acosta kept hearing about this “Spider Baby,” and upon reading several letters praising its greatness in a magazine devoted to fans of the genre, he just had to see the film.
“I expected it to be cheesy, maybe even very cheesy,” Acosta said. “But I found it to really have a story ... an emotional sense to it — and at the same time, it had a love/romance angle.”
What turned out to be actor Lon Chaney Jr.’s last film would turn out to be local composer Acosta’s inspiration to write some “Spider Baby” songs for what he originally envisioned as a concept album.
Five years ago, Acosta, 39 — who plays guitar, bass and percussion — began piecing together some words and music in a nod to “Spider Baby,” which depicts the sufferings of the Merrye family. Each family member must contend with the same degenerative mental disorder, which causes a loss of impulse control.
What follows are the conflicts that arise when distant relatives want to institutionalize the Merrye children and sell off their land — but the kids won’t have any of that.
As his songwriting progressed, Acosta’s wife, Helen, also 39 — a professor of communication at Bakersfield College for the last 14 years as well as a former community theatre director — told her husband of 17 years that his creation seemed more like a musical score than a concept album.
“It just had all the elements of a musical — it already had the story and the songs went with that,”shesaid.
Next, however, Acosta realized that he would need Hill’s blessing (and permission) to officially turn his horror movie into a musical.
After a few weeks, Acosta was able to track Hill down and made a phone call to him, asking for thegreenlight.
“He just laughed and told me he gets asked for that from people probably once a month — what made me think I would be any different?” Acosta said. “I told him, ‘Well, I’m not in it to make money — this isn’t about profits, it’s about the art.’”
Plus, he told Hill, he had already wrote some songs to prove his creativity and dedication to the possibility of the project.
When Hill requested Acosta send him some recordings, well, there weren’t any.
Not yet, that is.
“So I played the songs for him over the phone,” Acosta said.
Apparently pleased by what he heard, Hill said he was OK with Acosta’s “Spider Baby” musical to proceed.
And so it did.
Acosta began shopping his now authorized, “Spider Baby The Musical” baby to local directors and producers. Because he didn’t have any experience with such things, he really just wanted someone else to “take over the reins.”
But no luck.
So Acosta took on the full scope of duties to get his musical, which includes a new arrangement of Ronald Stein’s film theme, off the ground. Acosta and fellow Bakersfield composer, Brent Simms put what they call an “Ozzfest-worthy, rock edge” to the score.
In other words: Headbangers, rejoice!
“Spider Baby The Musical” first showed at the Empty Space Theatre, just blocks away from the Acostas’ home. And although the show didn’t turn out exactly as its creator had hoped — which he takes full responsibility for — it was a definite learning experience, Acosta said.
The couple then took “Spider Baby” up to Northern California where another drama troupe took a stab at the production.
Again, the show was not quite the artistry Acosta envisioned.
“They took out several songs,” he said.
And that’s when the couple — who first met at an open poetry night — decided to take real ownership of “Spider Baby,” the musical, which now includes numbers Acosta says have “a rock edge, but still playing up the horror and tenderness.”
“If it didn’t have our fingerprints on it, then we didn’t want to do it any more,” said Helen.
From there, the show — and the Acostas — hit the fringe festival circuit, meaning venues specializing in alternative or non-mainstream entertainment. Acosta’s “Spider Baby” has found enthusiastic “fringe” audiences up and down the state of California, including the popular Rogue Festival in Fresno earlier this year.
They’ve also learned how to hone the show to fit the various time limits and facilities at each festival location.
“We’ve become really efficient and really focused,” Helen said.
“We cut the fat,” Acosta added.
Hill has since seen Acosta’s production in its new-and-improved state, giving even more than his blessing now.
“After Jack saw the performance in LA, he came up to me, shook my hand and told me I’d done a great job,” said Acosta, adding that Hill now has his agent on the hunt for a “real” producer for the show.
Meanwhile, the Acostas are thoroughly enjoying the traveling they’ve been able to do together because of “Spider Baby” — it’s Acosta’s barista wages, meager though they are, that finance the endeavor — as well as meeting a whole host of other creative types.
Although the Acostas are not yet able to pay the actors in “Spider Baby” in the traditional sense (i.e., a paycheck), they are compensated with free hotel rooms when on the road and at least one daily meal courtesy of the couple.
The actors — a hybrid mix of Bakersfield and Los Angeles residents — also receive a share of the box office sales and merchandise earnings as a way to give the cast more ownership of the show, according to Acosta.
“We try to make it out as a working vacation,” he said. “These actors are all great, I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them — we couldn’t do this without them.”
Next on the “Spider Baby” musical agenda will be stints right here in Kern County.
First, a return to the Empty Space Theatre (Friday and Saturday, Aug. 7-8), followed by shows at the BeeKay Theatre in Tehachapi (Aug. 14-15) during the Mountain Festival.
In September, “Spider Baby” travels to the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The Acostas are negotiating for additional performances in in Las Vegas, Nev.; Ashland, Ore.; Flagstaff, Az.; and Albuquerque, NM.
Whether or not this homegrown musical production “makes it big” or not, this couple has already accomplished even more with this “baby” than they ever imagined.
“If and when this is a success, then that would be great, but it’s not about that,” Acosta said. “I’d be ecstatic if ‘Spider Baby’ does even better than it already is, but I’m not trying to make a living from it — art isn’t about making a dollar, it’s about making art.”