This year, Halloween is weird for the weirdest possible reason: It’s less weird than usual.
Monday, October 26
If you don’t already have dinner plans, the second annual Next Stop: New Haven benefit for the Shubert Theatre offers a reconfigured virtual experience, with each $75 ticket promising a party box full of “snacks and goodies” from eight local food businesses; performances by Broadway and other stage veterans Courtnee Carter, Tyler Hardwick and Ryan P. Cyr; a cocktail class with Jason Sobocinski of Continuum Distilling and Black Hog Brewing; a Broadway music-themed trivia game; and “more fun surprises.”
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Wednesday, October 28
The questions during tonight’s team trivia match at East Rock Brewing Company (285 Nicoll St, New Haven; 475-234-6176) focus on Halloween movies “from Halloweentown and Hocus Pocus to Halloween and Scream!” Registration required.
If you’d rather just watch a Halloween movie, the 2020 finale of the free weekly Movies in the Plaza series starts at 8 p.m in Pitkin Plaza and features Tim Burton’s kooky, cadaverous Beetlejuice (1988).
Thursday, October 29
From 6 to 10 p.m., a Halloween party at Amarante’s Sea Cliff (62 Cove St, New Haven; 203-467-2531) promises multiple food stations, live music from Timmy Maia and “prizes for best, most original, and scariest costume!” Tickets cost $40, not including tax and gratuity or the cash bar.
The New Haven Preservation Trust’s annual meeting comes in the form of a Celebration of Preservation. The virtual program, which runs from 6:30 to 7:45, includes “The Changing Face of Historic Preservation,” a presentation by NHPT preservation services director Elizabeth Holt, and the conferral of NHPT’s 2020 awards. A concurrent silent auction fundraiser, with items ranging from an original 1790 New Haven almanack to a country farmhouse dinner for two, ends at 9 p.m.
Friday, October 30
Saturday, October 31 – Halloween
At 3 p.m., a Wag-O-Ween gathering at El Segundo (367 Orange St, New Haven; 203-553-7255), a new restaurant offering “global street food” from poutine to bánh mì, invites you to “bring your furry friends in their best costumes for the chance to win some great prizes.”
At 4 p.m., families can head to Edgewood Park for a trunk-or-treat event promising “candy in individually packed bags.” Those arriving by car should head to the intersection of Edgewood Avenue and Hobart Street, while pedestrians should head to Coogan Pavilion on the northern end of the park. Free.
At 9:30 p.m. in Edgerton Park (75 Cliff St, New Haven), Elm Shakespeare Company’s Teen Troupe presents A Taste of Fear, “a socially distant evening of Shakespeare’s scariest moments.” Free; registration required. (With attendance limited to 50 people, two earlier performances, at 6:30 and 8, are already sold out.)
The Yale Symphony Orchestra’s annual Halloween show usually packs students into Woolsey Hall, where, as a previous class of organizers put it, “the orchestra plays a soundtrack, consisting of pop music, movie soundtracks, and classical pieces, to a silent film written by, produced by, directed by, and starring YSO members.” This year, it’s going virtual but also citywide, with a start time of 11:59 p.m. Free, with a $15 suggested donation; registration required.
Written by Dan Mims. Image features a still from Beetlejuice (1988). Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
