Faust at the Coliseum, while Arthur Darvill portrayed a melancholy Mephistopheles in Matthew Dunster’s revival of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus at Shakespeare’s Globe in June.
Adapted by Bruce Joel Rubin from his 1990 movie, Ghost The Musical opened in July at London’s Piccadilly Theatre.
Despite a much-hyped revamp in November 2010 and a subtle title change to Phantom: Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical sequel still closed its London run at the end of August after just seventeen months. Although a Broadway transfer for the show was delayed, the new version received rave reviews when it opened in Melbourne, Australia, in the summer.
Meanwhile, Lloyd Webber’s production of The Wizard of Oz opened at the London Palladium in March. Michael Crawford starred in the titular role.
Following his stage success with Ghost Stories, the League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson adapted three classic tales for Roald Dahl’s Twisted Tales. Polly Findlay’s production ran for a month from the end of January at London’s Lyric Hammersmith theatre.
Actress Judi Bowker (who played “Mina” in the 1977 BBC version of Count Dracula) starred in Harry Meacher’s stage play Mist “After Dracula”, which ran for three nights at the end of February at the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel in London’s Hampstead area. Meacher himself portrayed Van Helsing in the play, which was set ten years after the Count’s death.
Based on his 1985 cult movie, Stuart Gordon directed Re-Animator The Musical, adapted from H. P. Lovecraft’s story. With music and lyrics by Mark Nutter and starring Graham Skipper as crazed medical student Herbert West, the critically-acclaimed stage show ran from March until August at The Steve Allen Theater in Los Angeles.
In July, The 2nd H. P. Lovecraft Festival was held at St. Marks Theater, New York City. Written and directed by Dan Bianchi, performance art company Radiotheatre! performed stage versions of “Reanimator” and “The Call of Cthulhu”.
Meanwhile, from its usual venue in Portland, Oregon, the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival expanded to Los Angeles in September. Along with screenings of short films and rarities (including a new version of The Whisperer in Darkness), the event featured appearances by directors Roger Corman and Guillermo Del Toro and readings by Michael Shea, Cody Goodfellow and Jenna Pitman.
Alison Steadman, Hermione Norris, Robert Bathurst and Ruthie Henshall starred in a revival of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit at London’s Apollo Theatre, while Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton were the stars of Jonathan Kent’s critically-acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim’s macabre musical Sweeney Todd, which made its debut at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
Ralph Fiennes starred as a tortured Prospero in Trevor Nunn’s sold-out revival of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which ran at London’s Theatre Royal, Haymarket, over nine weeks in September and October. The production took more than ?1 million in advance ticket sales.
In early summer, the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre staged an outdoor production of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
The Veil, playwright and director Conor McPherson’s first piece in five years, dealt with secrets and spiritualism in 1822 Ireland, while a revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1994 play Haunting Julia was said to have caused the show to be stopped six times after audience members collapsed at the Garrick Theatre in Lichfield.
The Caped Crusader battled his greatest foes, including the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler and Catwoman in the musical extravaganza Batman Live, which kicked off a world arena tour at the O2 in London in August.
The following month, Somtow Sucharitkul’s ghost opera Opera Siam: Mae Naak premiered at the Bloomsbury Theatre.
In December, London’s Southwark Playhouse mounted a production of the late Diana Wynne Jones’ novel Howl’s Moving Castle, narrated by Stephen Fry.
Throughout the year, the organisers of 2.8 Hours Later transformed areas of British cities into giant urban chase games in which participants assumed the role of zombie attack survivors trying to reach a final sanctuary before they were “infected” by the walking dead.
John Carpenter and Steve Niles were brought in by Warner Bros. to work on the first-person shooter game F.E.A.R. 3, which featured the return of devil child Alma.
An idyllic getaway was overrun by an invasion of zombies in the survival game Dead Island, while Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, released for the new Nintendo 3DS handset, was basically a reworking of episodes from previous games in the franchise.
Players of the challenging Dark Souls, an unofficial follow-up to the equally difficult Demon’s Souls, were among the dead trying to regain their mortal lives in a world where evil had triumphed.
In the near-future, a global conspiracy to create cyborgs was at the heart of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, while the eagerly awaited Dead Space 2 quickly became one of the most popular electronic games of the year.
Despite the success of the movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was as disappointing as all the other games in the movie tie-in series. At least Captain America: Super Soldier was somewhat better.
The Caped Crusader attempted to bring order to the urban chaos that was Batman: Arkham City, an even better sequel to the excellent Arkham Asylum.
The successful Dead Space game franchise was reconfigured for mobile use on iPhone and iTouch, so that the touch-screen player could use their finger to slice off limbs, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies was available as an app for download onto iPads and iPhones.
Featuring the voice of actor Benedict Cumberbatch, The Nightjar was a creepy SF game sponsored by Wrigley’s chewing gum for free download onto iPhone.
For fans of H. P. Lovecraft, the Cthulhu Waterglobe was inscribed with the author’s famous couplet from the Necronomicon, or you could create your own eldritch lore with the Lovecraftian Letters magnetic words, which came in a metal tin containing more than 500 pieces.
The first issue of 2011 by Britain’s Royal Mail, “FAB: The Genius of Gerry Anderson”, featured six stamps honouring the TV creator’s five decades of work with Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90. The set also included the UK’s first-ever lenticular set that depicted the “4-3-2-1” opening sequence of Thunderbirds when the stamps were tilted back and forth.
In March, the Royal Mail issued a set of eight stamps celebrating “Magical Realms” with two images each from the Harry Potter movies, Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” books, C. S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” series and Arthurian Legend. The special presentation pack included an essay by Kim Newman about British magical fantasy.
In July, an insert poster for the 1936 Universal movie Werewolf of London sold for $47,800 (including 19.5 per cent Buyer’s Premium) at auction, and five months later, Orson Welles’ 1942 Oscar for Best Screenplay for Citizen Kane sold for $861,542 to an anonymous bidder.
Universal Studios added a “King Kong 360/3-D Ride” to its Hollywood amusement park. Created by Peter Jackson, the ride was promoted as the “world’s largest 3-D experience”.
Meanwhile, over at Disney World and Disneyland, a new 3-D Star Wars motion- simulator ride offered a different combination of more than fifty story elements, making every trip a unique experience.
An historic 1925 carousel in the George F. Johnson Recreation Park in Binghamton, New York, was refurbished in August with various scenes from The Twilight Zone painted by Cortlandt Hull. Rod Serling, the creator of the show, rode the same carousel as a boy and used it as the basis of a 1959 episode entitled “Walking Distance”.
The 2011 World Horror Convention was held in Austin, Texas, over 28 April–1 May. Guests of Honour were
