In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit upfront that I am tooting my own horn, here. This stage play was written by yours truly, directed by yours truly, and produced by Evil Cheez Productions, my theatre company. We just finished a three-week run, and I am pleased to announce that it was a smashing success. I did have some reservations about it, I confess. As a bone-deep Horror buff, I am in the minority in my home state. And BLUEBEARD belongs firmly in the Horror genre. No doubt about that. As we were staging this production in the Bible Belt, however, in a city where the theatre-going audience skews older and they have displayed a marked preference for mainstream, homogenized, and familiar stock—STEEL MAGNOLIAS has been performed no less than three times in the past five years by three different theatre groups. My supporters are loyal, but would they prove willing to come out for a right proper Horror show?
It wasn’t deceptive marketing to lean heavily, as we did, on the “historical mystery” angle, as BLUEBEARD certainly WAS an historical mystery. But I admit to a knowledge that murder mysteries—albeit in the Agatha Christie vein—tend to do well locally. If I can just get ‘em in the building, I said to myself, I’ll get ‘em hooked, despite the at times horrific subject matter. The gambit worked. No one walked out, except for this one kid who was just there because his high school Drama teacher made him come. But he doesn’t count.
