GOOSEBUMPS THE MUSICAL: PHANTOM OF THE AUDITORIUM

Based on the best-selling book series by R. L. Stine

Act I (45 minutes) Get ready for thrills and chills as the kids at Woods Mill School take on the phantom of the auditorium! It’s time for the fall musical and all the students, especially best friends Brooke and Zeke, are excited to audition. Ms. Walker, the drama teacher, warns the students that this year the show, The Phantom, will be scary. Brooke and Zeke can’t wait – they love anything scary! They anxiously await the cast list and, when it’s finally posted, see that they got the leads. Not everyone is happy with Ms. Walker’s decision. Tina can’t believe she’s just the understudy! Someone appears as the Phantom. Who could it be? It’s the first day of rehearsals and Zeke is already getting in to his role as the phantom. Wearing a phantom costume, he enters rehearsal and scares his castmates. With that out of the way, Ms. Walker has the cast introduce themselves. One student, Steve, says he heard that the play they are going to perform is not just scary, but that the script is cursed. Ms. Walker tries to move on, but after Tina says she’ll tell the story if Ms. Walker doesn’t, she finally admits that the play was attempted once before, long ago, at this very school. And the teacher who attempted it was Abigail Walker, Ms. Walker’s own great-grandmother. Unfortunately, the first time was just an attempt because the boy in the lead role vanished, and, as Abigail Walker tried to tell the audience, from somewhere in the auditorium came a horrible scream. The play was banished until now. Tina asks how they plan to have the phantom rise from the floor (as the script instructs). Ms. Walker shows the cast that a platform was built on an elevator for the first production and, after it gets looked at to make sure it’s safe, they can all try it out. After rehearsal, Zeke sticks around the auditorium. Brooke comes back to look for him. They decide to give the platform elevator a try. Screaming, they descend in to the sub-basement. They wander around in the dark and, when they think they see something moving, they head back to the elevator. Zeke tries pulling the lever, but nothing happens. They panic when they hear a noise and Zeke desperately keeps pulling until the elevator ascends again. Back in the auditorium, Brook and Zeke are confronted by Emile, who says he’s the night janitor. He questions what they were doing with the platform elevator and what they saw. Emile warns them to stay away and never go back down in the elevator again!

The next day, when Brooke opens her locker she’s scared to see a phantom mask and a note that says “Stay away from my Home Sweet Home.” But, she’s relieved when she realizes it was probably just Zeke playing a trick. There’s a new boy, Brian, at school and he’s in Brooke’s seat. They awkwardly introduce themselves and a nervous conversation ensues where they each admit there’s something about the other one that’s intriguing. Brian hopes to be in the play. Ms. Walker says that all roles have been filled, but he could help Tina with the set. Zeke sneaks up on Brooke, and she tells him she found the note and mask he left in her locker. But, Zeke doesn’t know what she’s talking about. As they start to run their lines, Zeke admits he hasn’t read the play. So, Brooke and the rest of the cast explain it to him: a beautiful singer named Esmerelda falls in love with a phantom. Although his face is covered with a mask to hide hideous scars, the music that they make together unites them. But, another man, Raoul, loves Esmerelda and kills the phantom so that she can be all his. Esmerelda loved the phantom so much that she runs away and the phantom haunts the theater with his singing. Brian attempts to help Tina with the set. When she asks him to step in to the light so she can check him, he isn’t able to. He can’t feel the heat. Then she’s frustrated to see that he’s carrying around a book from the prop table. He apologizes for not being more help. Ms. Walker begins the rehearsal, even though no one knows where Zeke is. As Brooke speaks her lines, a phantom appears above the cast and tells them to “stay away from my home sweet home.” The auditorium goes black!

Intermission (15 minutes)

Act II (35 minutes) Zeke asks how rehearsal went the previous day. Brooke confronts him about scaring everyone, but he denies it. He says he was at the dentist. Brian enters and, once again, he and Brooke have an awkward conversation. He asks if she thinks Zeke dressed up as the phantom yesterday. Although he said he was at the dentist, Brooke’s pretty sure he did it because he loves scaring people. It’s time for blocking at rehearsal, but Zeke doesn’t know what that is. When Tina asks him if this is his first play, he admits it’s his second but that he’s seen a lot of plays including Macbeth. All the students are aghast – he can’t say Macbeth in a theater! When Tina tells Brooke “good luck” (another theater no-no), Ms. Walker insists that although most superstitions are silly, they need to respect theater superstitions. Zeke takes a bathroom break. As rehearsal starts again, Brooke notices someone. It’s the phantom with another warning to stay away. Brooke collapses to the floor. Everyone thinks the phantom must be Zeke, but he says he just went to the bathroom. Ms. Walker cancels rehearsal for the day. Tina calls Brooke to check in on her and leaves a message. She says wants her to know that, as the understudy, she knows all the lines and is fully ready to assume the role of Esmerelda. Tina tries to convince Brooke to quit.

The next day, Brian asks Brooke if she’s feeling ok. Does she think Zeke dressed as the phantom? Brooke doesn’t think it was Zeke. Brian is proud to reveal the backdrop he’s been painting to Brooke, but when he shows her they see “Stay away from my Home Sweet Home” painted over it in red. The cast thinks it’s Zeke again, but he swears it wasn’t. They see a trail of red paint and follow it to a locker. It’s Zeke’s locker! When Ms. Walker questions Zeke, he says it was probably Emile, the night janitor. Ms. Walker tells them there is no night janitor. Zeke decides it’s time to find out the truth. After he lists the potential suspects, he says they need to investigate the mysterious night janitor, Emile. He and Brooke convince Brian to go down the platform elevator and solve the mystery of the phantom of the auditorium with them. When they get to the sub-basement they notice an area where it appears someone has been living. Emile enters and angrily asks why they didn’t listen to his warnings. He was the one who left the note, painted the backdrop, and dressed up as the phantom! Emile admits he’s been living down in the sub-basement ever since the school laid him off. Thinking Emile is going to get them, the three kids run away screaming. Zeke has finally cleared his name. Ms. Walker believes his story although the police never found Emile. Ms. Walker considers canceling their show, but Brooke convinces her that “the show must go on.” It’s opening night. Tina, busy stage managing, tells Brooke to “break a leg”, much to Brooke’s surprise. On stage, Brooke performs with the phantom, who is supposed to be played by Zeke but Brooke quickly realizes that someone else is wearing the phantom costume. When Brooke, as Esmerelda, asks the phantom why he haunts the theater, this new phantom sings about a tragic night when he was supposed to be performing as the lead in a scary play, but instead fell through a trap door to his death. He thanks her for her friendship and says he can now be at peace finally playing the role he was supposed to play originally. When he’s done, the crowd erupts with applause! Brooke finds Zeke after the show and discovers that he never went on stage because he was knocked out by the phantom. She tells Zeke she thinks the phantom is the boy who disappeared during the original production of the play. The phantom appears. Brooke runs to him and takes off his mask. It’s Brian! He tells her “goodbye” as the lights go out on stage. Notes: *There are some piercing screams, creepy laughs, intense music, blackouts, sound effects, etc. that all contribute to the spooky feel of the play. *Some actors come in to the audience sometimes (when they are in the sub-basement). *Lights descend from the ceiling when characters are in the sub-basement. *The phantom might be particularly scary to some – especially when he appears above the audience right before intermission.

For further understanding of the content, we strongly encourage you to read R.L. Stine’s Phantom of the Auditorium as well as any of the other books in the Goosebumps series.