Miss Hannigan: Stefanie Londino’s Villainous Triumph

Published November 30, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

As a theater loving grade schooler, I spent many a weekend afternoon spinning my Annie Original Broadway Cast album. Unbeknownst to me, those tunes must have found a way into the fabric of my soul.

Decades later, when a river of nostalgia carried me to a downtown Chicago theater to witness the 2023 touring production of the show, the lyrics of those songs came, instantly, back to me in waves of sonic glory. I was also surprised to rediscover how sharply humorous and grimy some of the show’s most celebrated numbers are. It’s A Hard Knock Life and We’d Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover, for instance, contain some truly black imagery.

Even more surprisingly, I had forgotten that Miss Hannigan and her criminal cohorts planned to kill Annie as part of their plan to abscond with Daddy Warbucks’ reward money. Thus, Hannigan’s comic villainy is shadowed throughout with a truly dark core. This revelation led me to further reevaluate the show and led me back to the theater when it returned to Chicago this winter.

Nicely, actress Stefanie Londino, who has played the role in the last two tour settings, also adds a bit of rock ‘n roll heart to the character, playing her with a combination of Patti Smith grit and Dorothy Loudon grease paint pizzaz. Her take is definitely a little leaner and meaner…and sexier than such former portrayers as Marcia Lewis and Alice Ghostley. One can even believe that Bundles, the laundry man who is part of a pivotal orphanage-based plot point in this show, would have gladly taken Londino’s Hannigan for a clean sweep across his sheets – a rather new factor for audiences, experience-wise.

Indeed, by adding a bit of saucy modernity here, Londino helps leaven the show’s occasional sentimentality. That bite is sure to appeal to people unfamiliar with it and its seemingly too sweet legacy as this production winds its way across the US until the spring of 2025.

More information on Londino and the tour, itself, is available at https://annietour.com/tour/.

More on this eclectic performer, who also fronts a band called West Side Waltz, can be found at http://www.stefanielondino.com/, as well.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Joanna Newsom

Published June 10, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

With her unique viewpoint and sharp, childlike phrasing, celebrated arthouse musician Joanna Newsom seems an unlikely choice to be a horror movie balladeer. But that is probably what makes the inclusion of her delicately punctuated Sprout and the Bean, used in both 2008’s The Strangers and this year’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, so cinematically effective.

In both films the song plays as the heroines of each piece, Liv Tyler and Madelaine Petsch respectively, celebrate a moment of solitude in a secluded home. Thus, the sweetness of the tune functions as a wonderful red herring. It is a calming lullaby that, ultimately, leads to an evening of twisted torture and bloody despair.

With talent running deeper than a knife slash, Newsom’s strange sonic world has definitely developed over three more albums — Sprout is featured on her simpler yet evocative first recording, The Milk-Eyed Mender. As 2006’s Ys and 2010’s Have One on Me are considered by many discerning critics to be modern classics, now seems the perfect time for the uninitiated to take a deep dive into her singular catalog.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Unsung Heroines of Horror: June Havoc and Evelyn Keyes

Published March 12, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

June and Evelyn A Return

Two years before infamously giving Bette Davis her last role in the horror comedy Wicked Stepmother, esteemed cult director Larry Cohen cast two other veteran beauties in 1987’s A Return to Salem’s Lot, his sequel to the Stephen King vampire story.

Here, Cohen gave June Havoc and Evelyn Keyes meaty roles as the matriarchs of a town filled with the blood sucking undead. Keyes, known for playing Vivian Leigh’s sister in Gone With the Wind and a series of femme fatales in noir flicks, was cast as the judge’s wife, lending not only her show business prestige to the proceedings, but a regal sense of bearing, as well.

Havoc, a Broadway legend and a vivacious presence in a series of Golden Age musicals and the acclaimed drama Gentleman’s Agreement, was cast as the former caretaker of the film’s lead, played by quirky Cohen regular Michael Moriarty. Tenderly trying to reconnect with the horrified Moriarty, Havoc is definitely given the more significant role here.

But both she and Keyes dive into the lurid circumstances at hand with glee. Tearing into their characters’ victims with malevolence, they also somehow keep their dignity intact. In fact, one of the funniest moments occurs as Havoc’s prim Aunt Clara takes time to adjust her lipstick after a particularly aggressive feeding.

June solo Return

Meanwhile, the film itself, containing dollops of Cohen’s odd sense of humor and strange plot structuring, was not well received by fans upon its release. But lovers of old school Hollywood should be charmed not only by the presence of Havoc and Keyes, but by maverick filmmaker Samuel Fuller (Shock Corridor, White Dog) who puts in a rascally appearance as a vampire hunter. Interestingly, singer-songwriter and A Nightmare on Elm Street star Ronee Blakley also turns in one of her last screen roles (as Moriarty’s ex-wife) while future terror regular and eternal media catastrophe Tara Reid commits to one of her first.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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June and Michael A Return

Dagger Cast with Corinne Halbert

Published March 11, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Corinne and Nuns You can keep your Vanessa Redgrave, your Florinda Balkan, your Bonnie Aarons. They’re all awesome, but none of them can hold a cloistered candle to Corinne Halbert! One of Chicagoland’s most important horror artists, Halbert joined us on the latest Dagger Cast to talk about her influences and how discovering a love for the macabre in your youth shapes you. Believe me, we can all relate, right?!? In particular we look at the nunsploitation genre, including such classics as The Devils and School of the Holy Beast, and how it has informed her work.

Also joining us this time around are the amazing Rhea D and Coye Vega – con regulars, cos players and generally awesome people.

https://soundcloud.com/daggercast/ep-205-corrine-halbert

You can also check out other examples of Corinne’s work (or even support her Patreon for as little as a $1 a month) at:

https://corinnehalbert.bigcartel.com/

https://corinnehalbert.com/home.html

https://www.patreon.com/corinnehalbert

DC Group Corinne

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Jeff Junker’s Queer Punk Horror Art

Published March 29, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

Queer Horror Zine

Independent art makes the world go round. Case in point, one of the coolest things to happen to the LGBTQIA community was the ‘90s queer core music movement. Artists like Bikini Kill, Come, Pansy Division and the Rotten Fruits proved that there was a wide variety of DIY entertainment options for those who like an angrier, grittier, more angular approach to the creative muse.

In keeping with the energy of those vibrant times, artist Jeff Junker has just released Queer Punk Horror Art, a compilation of his work that is sure to bring back the ragged vibes of those days with the turn of every page.

The book is available now at https://www.amazon.com/Queer-Punk-Horror-jeff-junker/dp/1091273596/. So, pull on that paint flecked Darby Crash t-shirt and dive in!

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Ute Lemper

Published February 10, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

Ute 1

Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya and their ilk are almost the definition of punk thought – creative, darkly sexy and anti-establishment. Distinguished cabaret legend Ute Lemper knows the gothic heart of those artists’ intentions, often bringing a nourish fever to her performances of their works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHFXEPYU0FQ

Of course, Lemper has always commanded attention whether in concert halls, Broadway stages or playing a scheming ad agency owner (in cahoots with a pre-Bond Daniel Craig) in Smoke Wrings, a seventh season episode of Tales From the Crypt. Ute 2

Meanwhile, Information of Lemper’s other more personal and revolutionary projects, including tributes to life changing poets like Charles Bukowski and Pablo Neruda, is available at www.utelemper.com.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Review: Woof Magazine

Published April 14, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

Woof

It’s cool that a “woof” on the Scruff app of my phone means that some dude 3000 miles away from me thinks that I’m hot. But, in all honesty, it’s a magazine like Woof! Dog Eat Cinema Magazine that truly brings out the beast in me!

Coming straight from the dirty sheets of The Netherlands, courtesy of editor-creator Hans Minkers, this publication is perfectly pulsating with provocatively illustrated articles on everything from post apocalyptic roller skate movies to the filmic output of Draculina publisher Hugh Gallagher. You can also find substantive reports on the movies of Andy Milligan (Issue #4, Hans Van De Broeck) and the creations of director-producer Johan Vandewoestijne (Issue #5, Van De Broeck), one of the men responsible for the popular Troma title Rabid Grannies.

As someone who prides himself on owning as many variants of Alice, Sweet Alice on tape as possible, I also love how each issue focuses on a different VHS collector, honing in on their special interests and passion films. Minkers also is the force behind one of the more enjoyable regular features, Whatever Lola Wants. Here, he reviews a VHS from his collection that has been chosen by his 4 year old daughter. Thus, we are treated to explorations of films as varying as Clue and Stephen Spielberg’s Duel.

Woof 2 Nicely, decadent artwork is one of the primary focuses of this vibrant creation, as well. Sane Van Der Horst’s howlingly phallic creation in Issue #3 is a standout while Printsploitation founder Scott R. Miller contributes a centerfold full of unique performers for the publication’s latest issue. Willie Darktrousers also comes up with some enjoyably monstrous creations for the Gallagher feature.

And while the sleaze and grease of psychotic celluloid aberrations fully populate this enterprise, the feministic perspective is not ignored here. Laura Louwes is always on hand to give smart and fun reactions to classic porn titles with A Woman’s Perspective.

Issues of Woof are available for purchase by contacting woofmagazine@hotmail.com.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Zombie Bathhouse Chronicles: Paging Dr. Martino!

Published October 21, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

Hmmm…That old performing truism about not writing something for a cast member that you wouldn’t do yourself has come back to haunt me, as of late.

For years, I’ve been working with composer-lyricist (and Chicago institution) Scott Free on a project called Zombie Bathhouse: A Rock Musical. After a number of readings (and lots and lots of rewriting and reimagining and… well, you get the picture), we were ready to hit those Midwest stages, last week, for a professional run. Naturally, our amazing and dedicated cast was firmly in place, when circumstances twisted, as they are want to do, and I found myself recruited – or ham that I am, did I offer myself up willingly!?!? – to take over the role of the mysterious Dr. Martino, the man responsible for the many nightmares endured by the show’s tortured romantic hero, Michael.

Honestly, it’s the last position that I expected to find myself in…but after some inner grumbling and heavy sighing, I’ve actually found myself immensely enjoying being one of the many creepy cogs in a creative machine again. My artistic journey began in the theatrical trenches and I had forgotten how amazing backstage comradery can feel. It’s been very satisfying being part of a unit working for a common goal…and the fact that this, (quite possibly) my final theatrical stage appearance, is in a work of horror makes it all the more satisfying.

More than anything, though, this experience makes me respect artists everywhere all the more. There are so many beautiful things involved with creating something, but so many risks and heartaches, as well. Sometimes those negatives can even outweigh the positives…and, damn, don’t those failures fucking burn?!? But, still we persist. Therefore, I want to send up a salute to my fellow cast mates and to all who dare to risk, to dream and to falter, on a daily basis. We’re warriors, folks, and even the mysterious and totally unsavory Dr. Martino would probably have to bow down to that.

Zombie Bathhouse runs until October 29th at The Center on Halsted. Further information is available at

https://m.facebook.com/ZombieBathhouse/

Until the next time, Sweet love and pink Grue, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Bucket O’ Blood Recovery Sale

Published September 21, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

bucket o' blood.jpg

In 1975, Jaws proved it wasn’t safe in the water. In 2017, the water did a 180 and decided that Bucket O’ Blood Books and Records’ stock wasn’t safe from it. Yes, unfortunately, Chicago’s premium spot for horror books and used vinyl suffered from some flood damage last week.

Rallying, as independent businesses must, the store is hosting a Flood Sale and Party this Friday from 12 pm to 9 pm. They will have some of their damaged product on sale at slashed prices. Other independent artists and businesses are offering exclusive merchandise and cut rate vinyl for sale, as well, with all of the proceeds going to the recovery effort.

More information is available on the exclusive page for the event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/475132829525773/

As always, it is awesome when philanthropy and shopping go hand in hand. So, I hope to see you there…and until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE,

Big Gay Horror Fan

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The Small Woman in Grey

Published August 12, 2017 by biggayhorrorfan

The Small Woman in Grey.jpg

Quietly calculating, viciously over-the-top or timidly heroic, I love my women of horror. Therefore, the upcoming British production The Small Woman in Grey sounds truly appealing to me.

Written and directed by Andrew Eltham-Beyers, this soon to be released picture also utilized the talents of Sleepaway Camp’s Felissa Rose, behind the scenes, and legendary scream queen Brinke Stevens, in front of the camera.

Sounds like it can’t lose, right?

So, be sure to check out the official trailer:

Then sign up to get the latest scoops on the project, which prominently places two queer characters in the action, at https://www.facebook.com/Thesmallwomaningrey/, as well.

Brinke small woman

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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