It’s Halloween in July!
An eerie musical about life, death, love, whiskey, and ghosts will return to Bushwick on July 29. “Ghost Quartet,” originally performed at the Bushwick Starr in 2014, will find new life with a free outdoor performance at Maria Hernandez Park. The organizer of the play says that it will feel like a concert.
“The piece is performed like a concert, so the songs do most of the storytelling,” said Noel Allian, artistic director of the Bushwick Starr. “The show will feature beautiful, boisterous, complex, joyful music, and many references to stories by Edgar Allen Poe, the Arabian Nights, and folk tales involving two sisters.”
The show, created by Dave Malloy — best known for his play “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1914,” coming to Broadway in October — uses spirits to reflect on personal legacies.
“Ultimately, the piece is a moving meditation on how the choices we make shape the lives we lead and how our actions can live on long after we’re gone,” said Allian.
The latest production of “Ghost Quartet” will not provide whiskey to the audience, unlike its previous incarnation, because doing so is illegal in a public park. But the new space will provide a stunning background for the moody performance, said Allian.
“The audience will be sat close to the stage and then fan out from there,” he said. “I’d love to see people on blankets filling up the whole plaza. I’m excited to hear that music outside and to see the sun set during the show.”
The neighborhood park makes for an ideal location to bring people together, said Allian.
“There’s a lot of stress right now among people concerning the gentrification of Bushwick,” he said. “At the theater we’re doing our best to be a positive force in the neighborhood. I really hope that the audience represents the diversity of the neighborhood, and that in some small way public performances like this will help bring people together.”
“Ghost Quartet” at Maria Hernandez Park [at Knickerbocker Avenue between Starr and Suydam streets in Bushwick, www.thebu
