Christmas has its carols and holiday standards. Halloween conjures sinister sounds, but its songs are less standard.
Guitarist Neil Zaza has spent years exploring how to define Halloween music with “One Dark Night: A Rock Symphony of the Macabre.” The theatrical production reimagines songs by the Beatles, Alice in Chains, the Police and others through a darker lens.
What began in 2018 as an orchestral rock production has since grown into an elaborate Halloween show featuring heavy guitar, vocals, dancers, video and theatrical staging.
Singer Connor Bogart O’Brien has also become a key creative force in the production.
The show returns to Akron’s Goodyear Theater Oct. 23.
For Zaza, it all comes back to one question: “What would the soundtrack of Halloween sound like?”
From classical guitar to rock 'n' roll
Zaza, who lives in Stow, has spent decades building an international career as an instrumental guitarist.
He studied classical guitar at the University of Akron for about four years before deciding he wanted to focus on a different genre.
“I just wanted to rock,” he said. “I started recording and playing and writing music and the band I was in started touring, and that's it for academic education right there.”
He formed the band ZAZA in the 1980s and later developed a solo career that has taken him around the world.
He has recorded with musicians including members of Journey, Peter Frampton and Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater.
His song “I’m Alright” has developed an especially large following among guitarists across the globe.
This fall, Zaza is taking it to Asia, where an “I’m Alright” guitar contest will culminate in a concert in Shanghai.
Zaza has remained rooted in Northeast Ohio, where he says his musical identity was shaped by listening to Kid Leo on WMMS and seeing artists like Michael Stanley at Blossom Music Center.
“Where you grow up really has a fingerprint, a DNA in how you become what you become,” Zaza said. “I definitely pay homage to where I’m from. It made me who I am.”
The origins of “One Dark Night” trace back to a performance back home in Akron.
Zaza appeared as a guest soloist with the Akron Symphony when he performed Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre.”
“It was breathtaking to hear the bigness of the orchestra with that piece,” Zaza said. “And I thought, ‘This would be really something cool to do. Where can we take it from this?’”
He began working with Akron Symphony violinist and arranger David Kempers on an album that combined orchestral music with a rock band.
In 2018, Zaza brought the concept to the stage.
At first, the production centered largely on rock arrangements of classical works.
But Zaza noticed that audiences didn't always recognize pieces like “Night on Bald Mountain” or works by Prokofiev.
So, he started adding songs they would know. Over time, the classical-rock concert became a Halloween rock show.
Eventually, Zaza realized the production was missing a piece.
“I need a real singer, and I need someone who could peel some paint,” he said. “Like really scream and get on it.”
Finding the voice for the show
O’Brien arrived at rock music from a different direction.
He started playing violin at 5 years old and performed in youth orchestras around Northeast Ohio before he began singing as a teenager.
He eventually studied opera at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, although opera wasn't necessarily the career he envisioned.
“I wanted to be a rock star,” O’Brien said.
After college, he pursued a solo career. He recorded one of his early songs, “Inside Out,” with a friend playing acoustic guitar in a Rochester closet.
Three years later, it unexpectedly became a No. 1 radio hit across the pond.
“I’m a one-hit wonder in France,” O’Brien said
He went on to tour with artists including Mariah Carey, Huey Lewis and the News, Hall & Oates, Rick Springfield and Richard Marx.
For the past 16 years, he has also worked as a headline performer on cruise ships.
O’Brien has built a career on moving between styles, and that versatility eventually connected him with Zaza.
O’Brien had taken a directing job for a youth production at the Akron Civic Theatre.
"It’s like a haunted house on stage but with crazy guitars, vocals, dancers."Connor Bogart O'Brien
Programming director Val Renner, a mutual connection, suggested him when Zaza began looking for a singer for “One Dark Night.”
Zaza knew O’Brien could sing. He just didn't know he could sing rock.
“I thought he was Michael Bublé,” Zaza said.
Then he found clips online of O’Brien singing Aerosmith’s “Dream On.”
“He said, ‘I had no idea,’” O’Brien said.
Reimagining the Halloween soundtrack
O’Brien’s arrival helped move “One Dark Night” further away from its classical origins.
The current production includes songs such as the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter,” the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” David Bowie’s “Fame” and Alice in Chains’ “Man in the Box.”
“The songs are reimagined,” Zaza said.
The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” for example, is reframed as something more sinister.
“That’s an evil song,” Zaza said. “That’s a song of possession. It’s not a song of love.”
O’Brien takes on a devil-like ringleader character during portions of the show. At another point, he is wheeled onto the stage inside a custom-built theatrical coffin.
He then crawls out to sing “Man in the Box.”
“It’s like a haunted house on stage but with crazy guitars, vocals, dancers,” O’Brien said.
The Northeast Ohio production has also featured a full ballet troupe, additional vocalists, dancers and a large video and lighting production.
O’Brien compares the concept to another rock production built around a holiday.
“If you enjoy the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for Christmas, then we are very similar to the idea for Halloween,” he said.
More than a Halloween show
Zaza and O’Brien continue to revise the production, adding versatility and new elements.
“We tweak it every year, and we keep taking it further every year,” O’Brien said.
That includes changing arrangements, adding songs and reordering the show. O’Brien has also taken on a larger creative role in shaping the production.
"We love Dracula, we love Frankenstein, we love the universal monsters,” Zaza said. “But the real monster is in the mirror.”Neil Zaza
For Zaza, the show offers a rare opportunity to step away from center stage.
“The focus isn’t on Neil Zaza,” he said. “It’s on the songs, it’s on the show, it’s on the story.”
That story has also become increasingly important to the production.
“We love Dracula, we love Frankenstein, we love the universal monsters,” Zaza said. “But the real monster is in the mirror.”
Throughout the show, the imagery moves beyond fictional monsters to explore what Zaza describes as “the evil that man is.”
“Who is really the monster?” he said. “Us or these projections?”
Zaza and O’Brien are now looking at how far the production can go.
“One Dark Night” is traveling to Springfield, Missouri, this year in addition to its Akron performance.
The pair hope to eventually develop it into a larger touring production. They’re also exploring a version for symphony orchestras that could move beyond the Halloween season.
“I really think that we might be underselling it, saying it’s only Halloween,” Zaza said. “The evil of man, the monsters in the mirror. So I’d love to see this thing play all year round.”
For now, “One Dark Night” returns to the Goodyear Theater, 1201 E. Market St. in Akron, Oct. 23.
