What to Expect From the Hocus Pocus Musical Parody | Playbill

News What to Expect From the Hocus Pocus Musical Parody Its Tony Award-winning star, Marissa Jaret Winokur, fills us in.
Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker Walt Disney Pictures

The Unauthorized Musical Parody of Hocus Pocus will cast a spell on Los Angeles beginning tomorrow, but before it takes the stage at Rockwell, Marissa Jaret Winokur spills the beans on what to expect.

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Marissa Jaret Winokur Joseph Marzullo/WENN

First and foremost, “it’s not for kids,” Winokur says, “and I have so many friends who are like, ‘Oh! I’m buying tickets for me and my kids!’ And I [say], ‘Well, you need to be inviting your friends and getting a babysitter’ because it’s [at] a nightclub… It’s a bar. We say, ’f*ck!’”

The musical parody of the 1993 cult Halloween film, starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker as the sinister Sanderson sisters, will take shape at L.A.’s Rockwell Table & Stage, where many an unauthorized musical parody—including Clueless, The Devil Wears Prada and Troop Beverly Hills—have played before.

It was when Winokur saw Troop Beverly Hills that she was asked to come on board as Winifred Sanderson, originated on screen by Midler, for the September 29-November 12 engagement. (She alternates in the starring role alongside recording artist Becky Baeling Lythgoe.)

Like the unauthorized parody musicals before it, Hocus Pocus will incorporate popular music from the ’80s and ’90s to further the plot. Winokur teased that some titles include AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind,” the Backstreet Boys’ “Backstreet’s Back,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero,” the Bette Midler tunes “From a Distance” and “The Rose” and, naturally, “I Put a Spell On You” from the film.

“Whenever I go into doing a spell, I’ll do a Bette Midler song, and [the other characters are] like, ‘No! Not that spell!’ I’ll start singing ‘From a Distance’ or ‘The Rose,’ so there’s funny things like that,” she explains. “We also have Peter Boyd playing The Book, which is like the narrator, to help the story [along]. … They keep really true to the stories, but when the Sanderson sisters come back, we literally become The Backstreet Boys [and do] ‘Backstreet’s Back,’ and all of a sudden I’m dancing like a Backstreet Boy, which is so ridiculous!”

The adaptation is by Kate Pazakis and John Flynn. Pazakis is executive producer. Tye Blue will direct.

Click here for tickets, priced $22-$49.

Before the musical was announced for Rockwell, Playbill reimagined the film as a stage version. Read what we think a stage adaptation of Hocus Pocus would be like here.

 
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