Ginger Minj Resurrects Hokus Pokus Live!
Drag performer and RuPaul’s Drag Race regular Ginger Minj says she became “obsessed” with the movie Hocus Pocus as a child and would use an oversized green robe and orange towel “wig” to pretend to be the witch Winifred, played by Bette Midler in the 1993 film. Her childhood dream became reality when Minj received a call from director Anne Fletcher offering her a role in her 2022 sequel Hocus Pocus 2.
On set one night, Midler herself praised Minj’s performance and suggested she create a live parody of the movie, which tells the legend of how the Sanderson Sisters wreak havoc after a virgin lights a magic candle to resurrect them. Who says no to Bette Midler?
So Minj wrote, directed, and currently stars in Hokus Pokus Live!, which comes to Provincetown for a Spooky Bear Weekend run at the Art House. Drag performers Gidget Galore and Aria Hard co-star as her witchy sisters in the roles originated by Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker in the film. The 90-minute musical parody has been touring nationally since early October.
With lines that are familiar to the film’s legions of fans (“Sistahs, come, we fly!”), the parody pays homage to and lovingly pokes fun at the Hocus Pocus movies in ways that even nonfans enjoy, says Minj: “I wanted to see what would happen if these women were plopped into today, and that opened up so much comedy.” The update includes the film’s signature song “I Put a Spell on You” along with tunes by Cher, Lizzo, Britney Spears, and Elton John, plus Chappell Roan’s singalong hit “Hot to Go.”
Minj says she’s been thrilled by the enthusiastic audience reaction to the show. “When we’re in costume, we can’t even walk out to the street for fresh air without a crowd forming,” she says.
“Everybody wants that picture. They love these characters.”
In fact, there’s so much love for the characters that a second, unrelated live Hocus Pocus-inspired show will be taking place at the Crown & Anchor over the same weekend: Witch Perfect stars Tina Burner, Scarlet Envy, and Alexis Michelle as the Sanderson Sisters, and includes Madonna, Cher, Broadway, and Disney standards — and, of course, the requisite rendition of “I Put a Spell on You.”
Tickets for Hokus Pokus Live! at the Art House (214 Commercial St.) are $45 to $65, plus fees, at hokuspokuslive.com, and tickets for Witch Perfect at the Crown & Anchor (247 Commercial. St.) are $40 to $50, plus fees, at onlyatthecrown.com. —Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
Music Videos to Get Out the Vote
Wellfleet artist and activist Harriet Jerusha Korim has been focusing on music lately. That’s how she’s added her voice to the chorus encouraging voters to show up in this election. Korim says that “middle-of-the-night desperation” led her to write “Vote 4 Mom,” which she describes as a “rallying cry” supporting women’s body autonomy and protection for the future of today’s children and Mother Earth.
After Korim found collaborators through the national Third Act organization for activists over 60, she made a music video for the song with her husband and band partner, Rick Arnoldi, who plays guitar and bass. The video includes dozens of Outer Cape residents urging listeners to “turn out the vote like never before.”
Korim’s video is one of at least three similar collaborative projects by Outer Cape musicians this election season. For the video for her song “Smash” — as in “smash the glass ceiling” — Provincetown musician Zoë Lewis enlisted artist Jo Hay and dozens of locals as extras. Orleans musician Julie Charland filmed the video for her song “We the People” in the garden behind Wildflower Pottery in Brewster. The song encourages listeners to stand together and “be the change you want to see” to create a world worth passing on to our youth: “If you’ve been thinking the system’s broke, then make the difference, go out and vote.”
“This is my call to act, not react,” says Charland, who adds that she’s concerned about voter apathy, especially among young people, and the risks of political division. “I hope they see that voting is the future in our hands.” —Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
Nicolas King Returns to Provincetown
Music was never something that Nicolas King decided on as a career, he says. “I just knew it was what I was going to do.”
Now an award-winning Broadway actor and jazz vocalist, King credits his direction to his family, all musicians. As a child growing up in Westerly, R.I., he often traveled with his grandmother, singer Angela Bacari, to her gigs. “Being around so much music rubs off on you,” King says. “I suppose if I came from a family of plumbers, I’d probably be doing that.”
King made his Broadway debut at eight years old as Chip in Beauty and the Beast and eventually became the longest-running actor in the role on Broadway. By age 12, he had performed in two more Broadway shows: A Thousand Clowns and Hollywood Arms. During his adolescence and young adulthood, he performed with and was mentored by Liza Minelli and Mike Renzi. In 2020, he won a Broadway World Award for Best Swing Act.
King has sung in Provincetown for the last few summers and will return to the Post Office Cabaret on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. accompanied by the Mike Flanagan Trio. Flanagan himself is an award-winning musician and well known in the Provincetown music scene. The two share a strong professional chemistry.
“We click, musically and personally,” King says. “Whenever Mike calls, I say, ‘When do you need me and where do I have to be?’ ” At the Post Office Cabaret, Flanagan will lead his trio on saxophone, with Chris Grasso on piano and Todd Baker on bass.
The set list is still undecided. King says he likes to choose his repertoire a couple of days before a performance. “I find that the most honest and truthful storytelling comes from how I’m feeling that day,” he says. But he’s sure that there will be songs from the Great American Songbook and nods to Broadway and jazz.
King says he looks forward to the intimacy of a cabaret setting. Unlike Broadway, there’s no fourth wall. “You’re able to connect with the audience and talk to them,” he says. “You’re on the journey together.”
Tickets are $35 ($40 for V.I.P. seating) at postofficecafecabaret.thundertix.com. —Eve Samaha
A One-Man World of Shakespeare
Rod Owens is a retired English teacher with a mission: to convey his love of Shakespeare. This weekend, he will explore 12 characters in 15 scenes from five plays (The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, As You Like It, Hamlet, and King Lear), performing selected monologues and soliloquies in a program called “Come Here, Shakespeare!” at the Wellfleet Public Library.
Owens says he finds Shakespeare universally relatable. “His people hurt, question, mistake, and yearn — things we all do,” he says. “His characters cut deep. It’s not just surface level and the characters aren’t just one dimensional. Lear’s an ass, but he’s sensitive; Hamlet’s a jerk, but he’s conflicted.”
It’s evident that Owens gets a great deal of enjoyment out of sharing his love for the Bard. “A big part for me is the language,” he says. “I care about how things are worded. He’s so good at what he does. Characters that are more real than people I know, words that dance gracefully, drama that brings tears to my eyes, and comedy that leaps with surprise.”
Owens will present “Come Here, Shakespeare!” on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. at the library (55 West Main St.). Admission is free. See wellfleetlibrary.org for more information. —Hazel Everett
