The Shows Went On!

Anyone that knows me knows that I hate haunted houses and scary movies.  I hate being startled and scared.  Can’t stand it.

But I simply LOVE Busch Garden’s Howl-o-Scream.  

Strange, isn’t it?  Not really.  I go to the park to soak in the lovely decorations.  To be outside when the park isn’t as hot (today withstanding).  And I LOVE the shows!

Seriously.  Summer has a few shows that I like, and a few that I could miss.  Same with Christmas Town.  But I love ALL the shows that How-o-Scream has to offer!

Today we did a sort of pub crawl, except it was going from one show to the other until we've seen them all!

And I have some thoughts!

The first show we saw was Fiends.  Fiends is rather adult.  It's got a Frankenstein meets Rocky Horror plot.  It also has naughty nurses.

from youtube

It's full of songs you know.  It's fun.  My favorite performers from last year are back. (I'm actually surprised the show is back.  Rumor was last year was the end of the run)  The show is campy and fun and I love it.  Last year I was astounded at the diversity in casting of the dancers.  This year, it's good, but not wonderful.

And someday I'll lose enough weight to fit into one of those nurse's uniforms! 

We then went to Night Beats (ReVamped).  This show is in the Festhaus, and that has got to be the worst place to perform!  The room is big and echo-y and people are going in and out with food!

from a previous year, also from BG's Audition site

They redid the show this year, removing what little plot that there was.  I could tell there was a bit of a storyline, but without ANY dialogue, it was hard to follow.  I also could NOT tell the two lead actresses apart!  But this show is one for all ages.  There's singing and dancing and it's a light, fun show.  With vampires!

One change that I did like was the costuming!  The old show had the poor dancers changing between every song.  And the costumes that they did use weren't awesome.  Now they have basic costumes with skirts and shrugs that they can change.  I also loved the overall design of the show!

Then we trekked to the front of the park to see Monster Stomp: on Ripper Row.  This show was my FAVORITE last year.  The female lead was sensational!  I saw the show every time we visited the park last year.

from BG's website

This year I was a tad let down.

That woman that I so loved wasn't back.  Her replacement was good, but she wasn't the powerhouse that I was looking forward to.

The thing that really ruined things for me was the sound mixing.  For years Busch Gardens would mix their shows with the backing track so loud that the singers couldn't be understood.  Funny enough, that changed when they got a new head of entertainment.  Today the mix in Monster Stomp was bad.  SO very bad.  I get that they have live percussion, but I'd like to understand the performers.  The guy that plays Jack the Ripper was from Britmania earlier in the summer and I would have liked to hear him sing!

Today was opening day for the season.  I've decided that I'm going to go back in a few weeks when it's cooler.  We'll see if my thoughts change.