View: Haunted Soiree HauntOberfest
Updated: 20 hours ago
Back for its annual cocktails-meets-Halloween approach for 2026, the popular event offers a mixed bag of tricks or treats in Glendale.
an Immersive Scene Los Angeles View
There are really two ways to think of the Haunted Soiree events held each year at the Nocturne Theatre in Glendale. One, as an immersive cocktail experience with an associated spooky story element, or, two, as a genuine immersive theatre experience with cocktails, and the distinction matters.
If you look at Haunted Soiree: HauntOberfest* as the former, then you’ll easily be satisfied, finding it just a fun nighttime diversion with a festive crowd, some imbibing, a chance to see a few roving characters, some cabaret acts here and there, and one short but very satisfying theatrical performance piece that highlights the main theme.
If, however, you seek the latter approach and are hoping for a deeper storyline experience, then the 2026 iteration, while not unenjoyable, doesn’t really hold up as a compelling full-night event. Given that the yearly show is held in a real theatre with a terrific creative pedigree, HSLA always expects a strong narrative here over the adult beverage-focused festivities. It’s visible to a degree, but not especially potent in the end.
As a theatrical foundation, the Hex Hollow murder storyline (based loosely on a very real 1928 death tied to folk magic in Pennsylvania) was a strong choice for the brief but scary theatre presentation that is offered as the narrative centerpiece of the two-hour event. Once you see that vignette at the upstairs LaBranch Stage, you’ll sort of understand the narrative reason for attending. If you miss it, and you could, as Soiree is a self-directed, go-where-you-will experience across a large two-floor environment, you likely won’t have a clue. Even if you do see it, some other aspects of the night - a few easily recognizable to past attendees of Soiree - don’t particularly tie in to that story at all, and the result can be a little confusing, even if the whole thing still works as simply an evening out on the town with a couple of drinks.
While the central show upstairs clearly hit the core theme strongly, Soiree only needed more supporting elements for that tale, both before and after, in the other Nocturne rooms, hallways, and main stage downstairs to congeal the whole package and tie it together more cohesively. Additional narrative connections to the victim, who practiced powwow folk magic, or even to his three killers and their belief in a hex, would have set that central piece up well. Instead, there’s a Hansel & Gretel B-story and trick or treat trail, which on its own was fun and cleverly staged, but had nothing to do with the main storyline aspect of the night.
In the main lounge/bar on the second floor, I engaged two roaming characters standing near each other, one tied to the real Hex story and the other to the dark fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, about child abandonment. Were they somehow supposed to be connected for this HauntOberfest? I was trying to put it all together into one logical piece. That was the issue. And looking around the room, there were some obvious callback pieces from previous years, like the living Ouija Board and the up-close magician, that were still interesting but really seemed unrelated to either theme, instead feeling just kind of tossed in.
Back downstairs in the Nocturne’s beautiful main stage, there was a rotating series of solo acts playing for the in-the-round crowd. The only one that really stood out was the stylish aerial act performed on a hanging rope ladder, which was a fresh spin on similar routines, but it also had little if anything to do with either the Hex or H&G stories. Otherwise, a costumed host/character who’d greeted the crowd earlier at the entrance was now running some audience-participation contests that felt a bit flat and seemed intended primarily to kill time. So, time to move on and search out the clues that the promo material claimed were hidden throughout the venue, but to where?
After just an hour in, I’d pretty much already seen everything there was to see and waited patiently with a large crowd in the upstairs nightclub for the house band to start. It was a long while sitting there, and I scanned the room to see a lot of people scrolling on their phones, also biding time. I don’t think you want biding time going on at a two-hour show. This would have been an opportune moment to have someone, a storyteller perhaps, on the stage to explain more about the history of the tragic Hex story or even the Hansel and Gretel story, anything really. Instead, we had quiet, cocktails, and scrolling.
The previous year’s Soiree kept you busy with content for the full two hours. This year, I was reluctantly heading out the door at just 80 minutes. A friendly couple I’d met early in the evening, also dedicated Soiree-goers, compared notes with me and felt much the same way. Fun for drinks and some October revelry, but falling comparatively short to previous years’ offerings.
Even so, there were enough bright spots to remind you why Soiree has built such a loyal following for the annual Halloween season event.
The acts throughout were enjoyable, the few roaming characters engaging and forthcoming in their tales, one or two on the main stage fun to watch, the H&G trail scare creatures and sets effective, the musicians in the cabaret solid, and, most of all, the cloaked hostess and actors in the Hex theatre piece were terrific, so, yes, there were elements to enjoy here. Just wish there had been more of them and that the whole thing had tied together better into something cohesive that made clear a memorable message for the night.
I’d absolutely say that if this is your first Haunted Soiree, you’ll really enjoy it. If it’s your second or third, you’ll probably still appreciate the experience, but you might harken back to earlier versions, like last year’s Vampire. Even though that one didn’t really give you a full Dracula theatre fix, it did provide a continuing vibe of gothic horror that followed you like a mist throughout the evening from chamber to chamber.
This year, just go in knowing that you’ll revisit some things you’ve already seen at earlier Soiree events, and you might not find the full theatrical satisfaction you've come to expect from past iterations, beyond the fantastic Hex one-act piece. In the end, though, if you’re only seeking an October night out with some cool surrounding elements and cocktails, you’ll find Haunted Soiree 2026 well worth a visit this Halloween.
by Thom Mills for Immersive Scene Los Angeles
The Nocturne Theatre
324 North Orange Street
Glendale, CA 91203
now thru October 31 (weekends and select nights)
Tix: $77.00-$101.00
*We did notice that the event’s original poster changed recently from a HauntOberfest motif – featuring a smiling blond girl in lederhosen with large beer in hand – to the darker Hex Hollow story a few weeks later, so we wonder if there might have been a late-inning change in themes. That could explain the unconnected sense that lingered throughout this year’s event.
