Show Reviews (Spoiler: GO SEE MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE!)

Hey! I just finished up my visit to Halloweekends at CP. :-) I didn't do any of the haunts tonight. Just caught all the shows. Here's my thoughts on each one...

***Midnight Syndicate***
You MUST go see this. You'll either "get" it or you won't. I was firmly in the "get it" category. I'm going to be careful about how much I say... It's kinda like The Sixth Sense in that once you know "the thing" you can't look at it the same.

I felt it was brilliant. The best way to describe it is... Imagine "Paranormal Activity" was turned into a live event. That's what this is.

The artistic creativity is way above what I expected for an amusement park. Major, MAJOR props to the CP brass for ok'ing this thing... I can't imagine most amusement parks having the guts to go with the concept.

***Lusty Lil's Spooky Shenanigans***

Very, very solid. Lil is still there, just in a different character. I absolutely adore her. She's *so* charismatic on stage. I hope to see her career grow beyond CP.

The same campy feel from the main season's show is still there. It's fun, the music is great, and the talent is strong. Out of all the "main shows" this one's the most kid friendly.

***The Edge of Madness - Live!***

You have to see this just for the guitar work. It was so good that I briefly questioned whether it was live or piped in as a background track. The guitarists assured me they were playing for real.

The show is arranged musically so the energy builds continually until the end. You can definitely see the effect that had on the crowd.

I honestly feel that this was superior to the country show they had playing the rest of the season. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of country music, but I watched the crowd and I don't think I'm the only person who preferred this...

***Sideshow - A Carnival of Magic***

As you may infer from my screen name, I have the unique perspective as doing magic for part of my living (the rest is event production). I went into this with very low expectations. Most magic shows are terrible.

They actually did a really good job with this. It felt fresh, well produced, and it drew strong crowd reactions. I have seen a ton of magic shows and this is better than 95% of what you'll see out there... Even amongst "professional" shows.

My only criticism... At the mid point they do the infamous "banana trick". This is massively overplayed. Every two-bit magician does it at kids birthday parties. I kinda feel CP can do better than this.

Otherwise it was refreshing to see a magic show done well. I kinda wish the magic world would take note of this. It's the direction our art needs to go.

***Skeleton Crew***
If you're not familiar, it's a "Cirque" style show. Overall it was well done. It's not quite on par with the show at Kings Island, but still very solid.

The music nerd in me liked hearing the Dubstep beats through the Luminosity speakers. ;-)

I wish CP had a Cirque style show. They've been implementing elements of it in Luminosity (umbrella dude, carousel girls). Although I like Luminosity, I feel it would benefit by adding more "Cirque-Esque" elements for variety.

At any rate, definitely make sure you catch it. I would put this in the top three with Midnight Syndicate and the magic show. I've seen the "real" Cirque Du Soleil in Vegas and like the fact CP is exposing more people to this kind of thing.

I didn't catch anything else. I missed the fortune tellers and didn't bother with the kid show.

The live shows at CP are massively improving. This is a trend I hope to see continue. As someone who appreciates live theater I feel the park is better for these investments.

I know 25 minutes is standard for amusement park shows, but a couple of them (Skeleton Crew & Midnight Syndicate) felt like they could have benefitted from some extra time.

With CP improving their show lineup, I'd like to see them experiment with some longer shows. Even if it was a pay-extra attraction, I feel it would be worth it.

The park feels like it's finally getting some entertainment on par with it's roller coasters. I for one couldn't be happier about that. ;-)

Can't wait to see Midnight Syndicate when we go in a few weeks. As for the Edge of Madness show - does that mean they have live musicians this year instead of pre-recorded sing-along tracks?

Midnight Syndicate sounds amazing! Would you consider it appropriate for kids ages 5, 7, and 10?

Hey! So Midnight Syndicate will be too intense for your five year old. The seven year old is questionable. The ten year old will be fine.

I did see a couple parents haul their kids out because they got scared. That's to be expected. The vast majority of the audience loved it.

Edge of Madness is a combo of both. Guitar and drums are live, but they do pipe additional instrumentation (like piano) in on a background track.

Hope that helps. :-)

We caught the 9pm show on Friday the 9/12 (opening night). As Matthew says it is a fantastic show. My 11yr old was on the edge of her seat. I wouldn't say it was "to much" for her, but it walked right up to that line. She really enjoyed it. We sat in the center of the first row - I might sit a couple of rows higher with hindsight.

Matthew is correct - Once you know "the thing" you can't un-see it. Katie was a bit nervous about going back into the park as we left the theater. Extremely well done.

I had not been exposed to Midnight Syndicate's music prior the this show and was very impressed. The female singer was very good and a complement to the show.

I'm a chicken and will not go to the shows, but I am interested in the creativity. Would someone please pm me a spoiler for the midnight syndicate gimmick? Thanks!

You can't really describe it without seeing the show. It's a pretty stunning visual presentation.

And mental.

Help me out a bit...

Red Garter Rob is right. :)

We caught the 7:30 show tonight. This genre is not really at the top of my list, but I thought it was brilliant. I completely agree with Mystical Matthew's comment in his original post - the production is above and beyond what you might expect in an amusement park. The show could quickly become HalloWeekends' #1 draw. Both the 6:00 show and the 7:30 show were packed, with long lines forming outside the theatre nearly 30 minutes before showtime.

Without trying to spoil anything... let's just say the Cedar Point tie-in was fantastic.

I will say this, though. I don't know what "the thing" is. Not sure if that's because I completely missed it, or I saw it and just don't realize that I did. :)

At first Midnight Syndicate sounded just eh, not something that would really stand up. However, after reading all this I now can't wait to see it. It sounds amazing! Plus I'm really curious about what "the thing" is.

This thread already says spoiler, so I'll discuss.

By "the thing" I'm guessing you mean the whole CP outside of the theater being deserted and zombified, then the zombies coming in at the exits for 0.75 seconds. It was cool, but it was hardly surprising as much as just a production build-up of the "story." Of course, if that wasn't "the thing," then please, educate me.

A couple other points:

If you like Danzig, or are an emo cutter, you'll probably dig this.

They state this, but it is certainly not for younger kids. The imagery is pretty intense on the screens.

They really needed to work in applause breaks, because the audience had a really hard time figuring out when to clap. When they did, they ended up stomping on the next song.

For 20 minutes, I thought it was worth it.

You nailed it Scotty. :) It's the surprise at the end. Also, the little stuff leading up to it. :)

Thanks for the info scotty!

Am I the only one who didn't "get it"? I mean, I guess I expected more than just watching projected movie scenes on the two screens and two people playing a keyboard (that I can't see because its hidden behind a wall). The "video crew" seemed random and when they did show the musician's hands, the video delay was too apparent and took away from their actual craft. And the park tie-in at the end, I felt, was rather corny.

I usually let myself become immersed in the fantasy world/shows at parks, ie. Disney, Universal, but I couldn't "feel" what was happening with this. I don't know. Maybe I'll just have to see it again and see if I change how I feel about it.

Midnight Syndicate show was extremely disappointing last night. I appreciated the music aspect however I feel it lacked the entertainment/fear factor I was hoping for from the production. On the way out of the show multiple people were commenting that what ever CP paid for the production was misspent dollars. Jason was right there to hear it, I see potential but it needs a greater fear factor for next season or I wouldn't waste the 20-30 minutes again.

How long is the Midnight Syndicate show?

About 25 mins.

I watched the 7:30 showing today and honestly... It was not much more than "okay". After reading all the hype from you guys on here I was pumped to see the show but didn't really know what to expect. The footage on the screens seemed very random. It took awhile for us to figure out the theme, which apparently was zombies. Yes, the end of the show was neat but was it worth sitting through 20 minutes of build-up? ...Not really. Also, the girl doing the vocals did a fine job but I couldn't make out any of the words over the loud organ music.

I will say, however, that last season we went to the magic show and it was very impressive! Lots of talent and hard work put into their performance. Can't wait to see it again this year. :-)

The theme isn't "zombies" and the girl is singing in Latin. That may have hindered you a bit.