Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and New York’s stages are ready for it. Here are the ghost stories, vampires, murders and costume nights playing through October 31, with the dates you need to book.
Halloween night itself
The Rocky Horror Show plays twice at Studio 54 on Saturday, October 31. The 3 p.m. matinee is the costume show: come dressed up, and after the performance the cast judges a parade of the best looks. Everyone at the 8 p.m. performance goes home with a poster printed only for that night, and the Friday, October 30 audience gets a limited-edition poster of its own. Jake Shears plays Frank-N-Furter in Sam Pinkleton’s staging, and Rachel Dratch is back as the Narrator from October 20.
Masquerade, the immersive staging of The Phantom of the Opera at 218 West 57th Street, follows its October 31 evening performance with Le Bal Macabre, its second Halloween soirée. The party spreads across several floors of the set, under the chandelier, with music and live acts. There are three ways in: the performance and the soirée together, the soirée alone, or a late-night soirée entry. The dress code is strict, with all-black macabre attire and a Masquerade mask required.
Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody holds its Halloween night a day early, at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 30, at The Culture Club, 530 West 27th Street. Come as Shane, Ilya, Susan or a hockey puck. The cast judges costumes on stage after the show, and the best win prizes. The parody runs through January 17, 2027.
Theater for the New City throws its Village Halloween Costume Ball for the 50th time on October 31, at 155 First Avenue at East 10th Street. The outdoor program runs from 3 to 7 p.m., is free and includes a children’s costume contest. From 7 p.m. to midnight the party moves inside the four-theater complex for $20, with short cabaret sets from Austin Pendleton and dozens more, swing and Latin dance bands, an aerial dance piece, a $5 dinner in the Witch’s Cauldron and a late-night costume contest. Costumes or formal wear are required. Details are on the theater’s website, or call 212-254-1109.
Ghost stories
Paranormal Activity is the season’s big Broadway ghost story, at the August Wilson Theatre through February 28, 2027. Levi Holloway wrote a new story drawn from the film series and Felix Barrett directs. James and Lou leave Chicago for London to start over, and the haunting comes with them.
2:22 – A Ghost Story begins previews at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on October 20, so it is in performance by Halloween. Opening night is November 5, and the run ends January 17, 2027. Danny Robins’ play puts four people around a dinner table, staying up until 2:22 a.m. to find out whether something really moves through the house. Anna Camp, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Finn Jones and Martin Marquez star.
A Ghost in Your Ear is horror on headphones, at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre through December 12. An actor arrives late for an audiobook session and is handed a ghost story to read. The binaural sound puts the audience in the studio as the story gets loose. Jamie Armitage wrote and directs, with Lucas Iverson and Owen Campbell in the cast.
Ghost Notes begins October 28 at the Royal Family Performing Arts Space and runs through November 12. Psychic medium Jess Perlman gives live readings for the audience while the Ghost Notes Band improvises around them. Perlman wrote the show with Briga Heelan and Michael Schwartz, who directs. Rebekah Greer Melocik wrote the title song.
Vampires and monsters
The Lost Boys brings the vampires of Santa Carla to the Palace Theatre, with tickets on sale through July 3, 2027. Two brothers move to the California beach town with their mother, and one of them falls in with a rock band that only comes out at night. Michael Arden directs, and LJ Benet, Shoshana Bean and Ali Louis Bourzgui lead the company. It won four Tony Awards, and no new musical won more last season. The cast album arrives on CD and vinyl on October 30.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow is in its final extension at the Marquis Theatre, through January 3, 2027. It is set in Hawkins, Indiana, in 1959. Teenage Henry Creel wants a fresh start, but a wave of shocking crimes hits the town and he begins to wonder what is inside him. Kate Trefry wrote the play and Stephen Daldry directs.
Drunk Dracula is the Drunk Shakespeare Society’s seasonal show at the Ruby Theatre, 35 West 39th Street, through November 7. One actor takes five shots of whiskey and then attempts the whole Dracula story. It runs about 90 minutes and is for audiences 21 and over.
Petite Rouge is booking through October 31 at Théâtre XIV in Brooklyn, so Halloween is the last chance to see it. Company XIV turns Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood into baroque burlesque, with aerial work and plenty of appetite. The venue is 21 and over.
Murder, served live
Rope is a new adaptation by Gordon Greenberg of the play behind Hitchcock’s film, at the Theatre at St. Clement’s through December 6. Two friends host a dinner party with a body hidden in a trunk, and the evening gets harder to manage as it goes. Scott Elliott directs Corey Fogelmanis, Elizabeth Gillies, Jason Butler Harner, Cameron Monaghan, Graham Phillips and James Waterston.
Perfect Crime has been running at The Theater Center since 1987. It is a murder mystery, and a good pick for a group that wants a whodunit rather than a fright.
Witches and wizards
For a gentler Halloween, Wicked tells the story of the witches of Oz at the Gershwin Theatre, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child keeps the wizarding world going at the Lyric Theatre. Neither has a closing date.
Halloween at home
I Put a Spell on You: A Sanderson Sister Act, Jay Armstrong Johnson’s yearly Hocus Pocus concert, streams from Friday, October 30 through Sunday, November 1. The live show raised $375,000 for the Ali Forney Center, which works to end homelessness among LGBTQIA+ young people, and the stream raises more for the same cause. Bowen Yang and Jasmine Amy Rogers are in the cast. Details are at spellonyounyc.com.
Planning past Halloween? See which shows are closing soon and which are coming soon on Broadway and Off-Broadway.
