Burton-esque ‘Sandman’ marks theater company’s return to stage

“It’s dissimilar thing anyone’s seen connected a theatre signifier successful Las Vegas before,” says Troy Heard, creator manager of Majestic Repertory Theatre. Given however often he’s staged musicals employing chainsaws, that’s saying something. But he’s not aiming for hyperbole.

“The Sandman,” opening Wednesday (see majesticrepertory.com), is the debut of a caller philharmonic by the Tony Award-winning squad of Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, who contacted Heard due to the fact that they wanted to unfastened this enactment successful a small, edgy, downtown space.

“I didn’t deliberation twice,” Heard says, and nary wonder: “The Sandman,” based connected a communicative by E.T.A. Hoffman, writer of “The Nutcracker,” “is ‘The Nutcracker’s’ dark, twisted sequel,” Heard says. “It’s gothic, scary and funny.” And complex: The acceptable moves and reconfigures; the constumes are extravagant; robotics are involved. “It’s similar a Tim Burton movie onstage,” helium says. But it’s not each style. “At the basal of it all,” helium says, “it’s afloat of heart.”

“The Sandman” finds Majestic Repertory “circling back” to the benignant of large-scale accumulation it past staged successful February 2020, with “Sweeney Todd.” With the COVID-19 lockdown subsequently clearing theaters, creator manager Troy Heard and his unit faced the aforesaid dilemma arsenic everyone other successful the civilization industry: however to enactment applicable successful the lives of their audiences.

Many went online, offering Zoom shows oregon talks; galleries posted Instagram exhibits. With his past of staging shows successful inventive ways and offbeat sites — houses, alleys — Heard rapidly adapted to the pandemic restrictions. In summation to an aboriginal brace of Instagram shows, Majestic staged outdoor drive-up oregon drive-through productions.

Last vacation season, a tiny unit of performers took a macabre vacation work, “If Only successful My Dreams,” to people’s homes successful a twisted parody of Christmas caroling. This outpouring saw “Hot Trash,” a socially distanced peep-show-style production.

“It’s astir keeping that transportation betwixt creator and audience,“ Heard says. “One happening I alwasy knew, successful theory, was that radical crave being successful a abstraction with different people. But during the pandemic I heard it from their mouths, saying, ‘Thank you for doing this.’ They crave sharing abstraction astir the metaphorical campfire.”