‘Buffy’ Hitting the Big Screen as a Musical

Avid fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will remember the musical episode “Once Again, With Feeling.”  Well now, you can experience the episode again, a la Rocky Horror Picture Show, on the big screen as The Buffy Musical tours independent theaters around the country.

Josh Whedon took a big risk that paid off with a powerful show when he turned the seventh episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s sixth season into a musical.  In this episode, Sweet (Hinton Battle), a tap-dancing demon, arrives in town making the people of Sunnydale burst into song and dance to express their inner most thoughts.  But when the excess singing and dancing starts causing residents to burst into flames, Buffy and the Scooby Gang must stop Sweet.  (Can’t quite remember this episode?  You can watch clips of the show on YouTube.)

Now here’s your chance to not only relive this episode —  in the theater — but to interact with it.  The Buffy Musical shows the “Once Again, With Feeling” episode on the big screen and invites the audience to participate.  To encourage interaction, participants are given a bag of props to use during the show.  Instead of toast and newspapers (think Rocky Horror Picture Show), movie goers get vampire teeth and finger puppets to go along with the booing of the vamps and cheering for our heroes.  And to encourage singing, the words to the songs are show on screen. 

Before the show starts, fans can join in even more Buffy fun that includes trivia, karaoke and impersonations.  To find a show near you, visit the official Buffy the Musical website.  From what I understand, the shows are selling out so get your tickets early.

If you want to brush up on the lyrics before you attend, you can find them here.  You can also purchase the soundtrack or an official “Once Again, With Feeling” script book, complete with lyrics and sheet music.  And for you die hard fans, take this quiz to find out which Buffy character you are most like.

I think this show would be great to see — the Buffy generation’s answer to Rocky Horror — but alas, there isn’t one coming to the Richmond, Virginia area.  So I encourage all you other Richmonders to email the tour and request for them to add us as a stop.

Those of you that get a chance to see the show, please come back and tell us how it goes.