Hey, Upper East Siders, wrong coast. Downtown Los Angeles, Halloween night, and a nearly century-old movie palace on Broadway. You didn’t hear it from us. Except you did.
Good evening, this is the Nightlife Report, and tonight we were inside the United Theater on Broadway for LA Opera’s Hercules vs Vampires, the Halloween-night edition with an afterparty and a costume contest carrying a grand prize of ten thousand. We came for a show. We left having watched a city put on its best villain and walk it like a runway.
A movie, an opera, and a theater that plays both
Let’s set expectations, because ours were wrong. We walked in expecting a play. What LA Opera delivered is closer to a film night with a live heartbeat: Mario Bava’s 1961 cult fantasy Hercules in the Haunted World on the big screen, starring former Mr. Universe Reg Park as Hercules and Christopher Lee as Lycos, with Patrick Morganelli’s original operatic score sung and played live underneath it. Greek gods, an underworld, a golden apple, an army of the dead. High art, high camp, both at full volume.
Conductor Blair Salter, LA Opera’s Head of Music, led the room. On the vocal side the company lists Joel Balzun as Hercules, Alexis Seminario as Dianara, Gabriel Manro as Lycos, Roy Hage as Theseus, Gabrielle Turgeon as Medea, Gretchen Krupp as Persephone, James Hayden as the God of Evil and Procrustes, Orson Van Gay II as Kyros and Robert Norman as Telemachus. The talent is serious. The movie is gloriously not. That tension is the whole point, and it works.
And the room. The United Theater was built in 1927 as a movie palace, and on Halloween it looks like it was designed for exactly this night: Spanish Gothic ceilings, a staircase made for entrances, and a glowing skeleton projection looming over the lobby like it bought a ticket too.
The contest: a runway in disguise
Here’s the part everyone’s texting about. After the screening, the theater flipped into an afterparty and the costume contest took over the lobby. Contestants walked the stairs and the floor while phones went up on both sides, and the judging panel included artisans from LA Opera’s own costume department. Rules required costumes to be handmade or substantially modified, which shows. These weren’t party-store capes.
The results, as we saw them:
- First place: the skeleton. Ten thousand, plus VIP tickets and a tour of the LA Opera costume shop.
- Second place: the lady knight. Twenty-five hundred and VIP tickets.
- Third place: the Dracula-themed look. Five hundred and VIP tickets.
Our own pick for the night? The Greek goddess. On a night built around Hercules, a goddess in white walking the stairs felt like the theme had stepped off the screen. We have our own golden apples, after all, and we know who we’d hand one to.
What stayed with us is that the contest works as its own fashion show. You get seen. You get recognized. For one night a year the craft of a costume gets the same attention a collection gets on a runway, and the judges, the crowd and the cameras all treat it that way.
The vibe check
Classy is the word. This is a higher-end Halloween, and you can feel it in the dressing and the room. But here’s the twist nobody warns you about: there’s no judgment. Even at that level, people were welcoming. Chill night, not too crazy, good energy from the first act to the last walk.
A note for the singles, because we promised to tell you everything: this is a date night. Mostly everyone was paired up. Couples in coordinated looks, pairs posing on the stairs, the whole lobby in twos. Go solo and you’ll still have a great night, but if you’re looking for a crowd built to mingle, this is not that party. If you’re looking for a place to bring someone and impress them, it absolutely is.
Why it matters
Culture unite. That’s our takeaway. An opera company, a historic movie palace, a cult film and a lobby full of people in handmade armor and gowns, all in one building on Broadway. It’s the one night of the year you’re allowed to be the bad guy, and LA Opera gave the bad guys a score, a stage and a staircase.
We’ve got interviews from the night coming soon. Who wore what, who made it, and what it took to walk those stairs. Stay close.
You know you love us. XOXO, the Nightlife Report.
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Anthony Perlas · nightlifereport.app
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