YMMV / Alien: The Play

• Awesome Moments: The production uses the entire theater, not just the stage. As noted below, one intermission features the Alien prowling the aisles among the audience to scare the hell out of them. For the climax of Ripley running through the Nostromo, racing against the self-destruct, the engineering console is on stage left, the door to the shuttle stage right. A ten-second stroll from one to the other across the stage, not very suspenseful. Instead, Ripley's actor runs from engineering, down the stage, up the left aisle, possibly out of the theater, then runs back down the right aisle, up the stage, to the shuttle door prop. Where the Alien is waiting, so she has to reverse this run to get back to Engineering to try and shut down the self-destruct, and as in the film, misses the abort time by seconds. Then has to do that run again to get back to the shuttle and launch before the ship blows up. An impressive display of athleticism, and the use of audio and sound effects from the film keeps the tension just as high as in the movie. Which also indicates they had to time this run precisely, for Ripley to hit the appropriate marks at the appropriate times, and not get to Engineering with plenty of time to abort the self-destruct, or arrive at the shuttle after the self-destruct has gone off.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The transition between acts 1 and 2 is Dallas jumping out of stage right while jamming on an electric guitar.
• Funny Moment: "You ever get the feeling we're in one of those movies where everyone dies?"
• He Really Can Act: The main cast give surprisingly convincing performances despite being a high-school theater club, even perfectly capturing the personalities and tones of the characters to an amazing degree.
• Narm: Brett and Parker being made comic relief characters who cracks jokes about being in a horror movie, dancing during an intermission and making jokes about not knowing what Google is may ruin the mood for some.
• Narm Charm: There's a certain appeal to some of the effects' apparent clunkiness, such as Jonesy the cat being a plush toy, or the chestburster being a hand puppet operated by a stagehand under the table. The most noticeable one was the effect of Ash's severed head, which even drew a laugh from the audience.
• Nightmare Fuel: Aside from all the horrifying scenes adapted from the movie, the intermission where the alien enters from the back of the theatre and stalks down to the front through the audience, then back up the other side again, hissing and snarling at the audience, is enough to make you need a change of underwear. Sigourney Weaver herself admitted that the alien terrified her.
• Special Effect Failure: The automatic sliding doors are moved around by stagehands, and tend to get stuck or move awkwardly when opening and closing.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: For its budget, and use of recycled materials as props, the production is amazingly well made. Right down to the space jockey, the Weyland-Yutani equipment, and the Alien itself. The Alien costume in particular is unbelievable for a high school production.

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