Cthulhu: the Musical!

What I liked

Cthulhu: The Musical was a lot of fun. I sat in the very front row for the first hour so I could best see and hear the puppets. The vivid design of the main narrating monster ( Bert ) was very eye catching. Another favorite character was the vivid Jenkins. The performers were energetic, had their lines and timing down marvelously, and had great musical backing ! At two hours of performance – with LIVE musical backing – I really felt like I was getting GOOD value for my ticket.

What I didn't like

Performing in black box theaters with multiple sound inputs is definitely a challenge. I sat in the back row for the second half of the show ( to get away from an audience member who smelled like a sweaty warthog, ) and found the sound challenges pronounced. While I was in the front row, I think I caught most lines, but the further back in the audience one went – the less clear things got.
I’m sure I missed many great jokes, and lines due to sound getting mushy. I simply couldn’t distinguish many lines. The plot followed a generic format for Cthulhu mythos type stories – so it wasn’t difficult to tell where things were headed.

• Perhaps if the Troupe makes a video of their show – close captioning will preserve all the great jokes and songs so audience members won’t miss a single bit of the silliness !

My overall impression

Cthulhu the Musical was filled with Wonderful energy and humor – emoted through Expressive puppetry action and catchy musical backing ! Lots of jokes and satirical riffing on the typical scenes and stock characters to be found in the Cthulhu mythos. For hardcore Cthulhu mythos fans like myself – we already know that the outcomes are usually bleak. Everyone either: a) Ends up suffering a Horribly Unspeakable End, b) Ends up in Shrieking Insanity, – or at best c) there are just a Few Traumatized Survivors. The only question is – how do we get there ? The Puppeteers for Fears troupe led us there with many songs, a Fine combination of back ground projection and live action puppetry, and engaging music to suit each moment !