Other Spook-taculars

Despite our best efforts, the crack Chronicle team of theatrical ghostbusters wasn't able to hit every haunted stage by press time for this issue. To our readers and the artists whose work we missed, we offer our apologies and these "treats" regarding the rest of the stage "tricks" taking place around town this weekend.

Dracula: A Musical Nightmare Bram Stoker's sanguinary count goes the way of another Gothic monster and gets the musical treatment, but not quite as spectacularly as Leroux's Phantom did. There's more English music hall than Broadway in this humorous play-within-a-play, which offers a traveling theatre company staging its own musical adaptation of Dracula, with backstage complications leading to humorous results. The Violet Crown Players revive this horror-comedy. Through Oct 31, Fri, 8pm; Sat, 2 & 8pm, at Scottish Rite Theatre, 207 W. 18th. $10. 454-TIXS.

Pigman Vs. Frankenstein

Pigman Vs. Frankenstein The Swine of Steel, hero of four previous plays for children by Austin theatre artist Freddy Carnes, returns in a new superhero spoof that has him squaring off against Dr. Frankenstein and his familiar creation. Through Oct 31, Thu & Fri, 10am, Sat, 3pm, at Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs. $6 ($5 children). 320-7169.

Duppy Stories ñ Wrestling With Ghosts Playwright and performer C. Francis Blackchild spins a spectral tale of traumas past and spirits that linger in this new solo show. She carries on a trade wind to Jamaica, where we learn that a "duppy" is a thing that haunts you and that some secrets cannot remain buried under pleasant memories. Michael Arthur directs this Austin Script Works presentation. Through Nov 14, Fri & Sat, 11pm (Sat, Oct 31, 9pm), at the John Henry Faulk Living Theatre, 204 E. Fourth. $5. 454-TIXS.

Ghostly Dread at the Driskill An interactive comedy mystery in which a séance puts the characters ñ and you ñ in touch with more than the dear departed. Could it be ... murder? Don't be frightened. The Capital City Mystery Players play it all for fun, and they fill you up with a tasty dinner at the same time. Ongoing, Sat, 7pm, at the Driskill Hotel, 604 Brazos. $47. 474-5911, x5206.

BLEWH Maybe not a Halloween production per se, but this evening of work by choreographers Ellen Bartel and Ashley Overton promises dark humor and twisted tales. Could this be that danse macabre we keep hearing about? Oct 31 & Nov 1, Sat, 8pm, and Sun, 2pm, at Cafe Dance, 3307-B Hancock. $8. 416-7079.

The Phantom of the Opera No touchy-feely, mushmouth Andrew Lloyd Webber Phantom this, but the fearsome masked madman immortalized on film by Lon Chaney, whose silent escapades are accompanied by yet another Phantom, the considerably more campy, keyboard-pounding loon portrayed by Frank Speller in what has become a bona fide Austin tradition. Speller, a master organist who knows UT's behemoth organ like Frankenstein knows his monster, really cuts loose in this longtime annual party, dressing up, serving up schtick, and playing the 24-ton Rowland-Vissers for all it's worth. Oct 30 & 31, 7 & 10pm, at Bates Recital Hall, 25th & E. Campus Dr. $10. 471-1444. ñ R.F.