If you do not see this in its death throes at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, you’ve missed an historic development in the art of horror and theater.

Whether you actually like it or not is irrelevant. It is what it is. It’s its own art form, a new thing unto itself. The cast sing the lines of dialog yet there are no songs. This did not thrill me, being a lover of most traditional forms of musical theater. And some of the lines were clunkers. That said, as someone pointed out, it must have been tremendously challenging for the cast to learn the music and lines, with no melody to speak of. Ultimately the murky atonality leant itself completely to the heavy, dark themes of the Promethean tragedy.

But what did thrill me was the spectacle, the collaboration of film, composer, theater and opera professionals in my beloved genre. I was thrilled to be there witnessing the innovation. History in the making in our culture. In our genre.

The stage design incorporated 1950s-style sci-fi props, and effects included prosthetics and puppeteering. It felt like we were back in the glory days of physical special effects filmmaking, the heyday of Rob Botin and Stan Winston. Gore scored the inside of the pods. Daniel Olkulitch who played Seth Brundle transformed before us, leaping, back flipping and eventually even singing in full fly costume as he climbed the set.

The ending was powerful. The theme of unconditional love really struck a profound chord.

Thanks to Keith for the unforgettable experience and to my friend Christa Faust, too.