Synopsis

Set in an abandoned performance hall, In Good Spirits begins with A Chilling Proposition where we meet Laslo Miller, a civil-war-period, Shakespearean actor/draft dodger who died of a heart attack while on stage; Edie O'Reiley, a flapper chorine who was shot by the wife of a fan while performing; Bunny Hopper and Salvador Secconado, killed in a freak accident during a high school dance held in the hall (the mirror ball fell on them); and Tequila Mockingbird, aka Melvin Ira Orenstein, a 1990's drag queen who broke her neck and died when she was tripped off the stage by a rival drag queen during a drag contest.

Doomed to haunt the old hall, the only way out for the five ghosts is through the "Stage Door", which unfortunately goes in only one direction - down - an even less attractive option than the purgatory of their own incessant bickering.

Enter the local real estate agent and the Quabbin Memorial Community Players (QMCP), recently displaced from their home on the shores of the Quabbin Reservoir (the reservoir rezoning committee chose their theater as a future submergible site). The realtor knows her business and In Theater, My Dear part 1 she convinces the QMCP to move in. Unfortunately, finances are tight, so Dr. Rosemary Gold, dentist, and her young and very perky daughter, Carol-Ann, come up with a quirky fundraising idea in Dentists and Buy Cuspd (Buy Candy for the Understanding of Semi-Professional Dramatics). Rosemary stirs desire in shy, classifieds writer Mortimer Hurley and we learn of his longing for Rosemary in Notice Me part 1.

Meanwhile, the ghostly inhabitants of the theater are not happy that the QMCP has moved into their residence. In Community Productions, Laslo gives voice to his negative views about amateur theatre. When Carol-Ann Gold enters we soon find out that she is not an average little girl. She sees dead actors, she sees dead actors all the time. What's more, she knows that the only way for the ghosts to get to heaven is to be good to the living and help them, if they can.

The spirits, save for Laslo, realize that helping the QMCP might be their ticket out of the confines of the theater, and in Possession they explain their plan to Carol Ann. Laslo wants no part of their scheme. To try and quell Laslo's disdain for community theatre, Tequila admits to once being involved in the amateur end of theatrics in My Carol Burnett.

The ghosts, without Laslo's help, make their first move to help the QMCP by trying to get Rosemary and Mortimer together in Suzie Zickle and Ricky Pickle. Unfortunately, Rosemary and Mortimer aren't touched by the spirits' magic quite as much as two other players--Summer Meadow (the group's president) and Tom, a member of the group with an unfortunate stutter. However, with the ghosts help, Rosemary is able to admit her attraction to Mortimer in Notice Me part 2.

With Rosemary and Carol-Ann's original idea for fundraising a bust, the theater group is at a loss for how to afford their next production. While trying to help the QMCP realize that they should write their own show to save money on royalties, Tequila accidentally places a notion in Mortimer's head and the situation spins out of control. Stringing together the serendipitous coincidences that have brought the QMCP to this point, Mortimer hits upon the idea to write "Jaws - The Unauthorized Musical" in Look At The Fish.

His idea is herald as genius and Act 1 closes as he is carried off the stage on the shoulders of the QMCP.

Act two commences with a humorous look at the audition process in Auditions followed by the cast beginning to rehearse their new show in Teeny Weenie, the story of the Jaws star and how he got his start. Behind the scenes, Tom voices his concern about acting with his considerable stutter in In Theater, My Dear part 2. Meanwhile, the ghosts, frightened about the prospect of opening night and Laslo, reduced to haunting the hall's bathrooms as they are the only place that he can get away from his meddlesome friends and the QMCP, sing In Good Spirits.

Two members of the theater group enter the women's room, still haunted by Laslo, and grouse about their own issues with community theatre and some of the divas that they must deal with in Prima Donna. When they leave, Carol Ann enters to scold Laslo for not helping his friends, followed by Mortimer and Rosemary who try to express their own discomfort with showing their real feelings about each other in Hiding In Plays.

It's opening night. Is the group of thespians (living as well as dead) ready? The Birth Of Legend and Having Kids is Hard shows that the community theater production of "Jaws - The Unauthorized Musical" has really come together as everyone scrambles to put on a stellar performance.

At the climax of the show within the show, Laslo finally relents and comes to stuttering Tom's aid, saving the day and leaving Tom with a newfound sense of confidence.

As our cast enjoys 3 curtain calls, a very special audience member (Stephen Spielberg) tells them how much he enjoyed the show and offers to take it to Broadway (In Theater, My Dear part 3) With all the happiness in the air, Rosemary and Mortimer finally confess their love for each other in Notice Me part 3. As the cast leaves to celebrate their success, the "Stage Door" opens and allows four of the five spirits to enter and go to their final reward, leaving Laslo Miller, the original holdout, alone on the stage. As he contemplates his fate, Tom takes a moment to try out his new-found confidence and finds that he has truly lost his stutter. This touching moment tips the cosmic balance in Laslo's favor and the "Stage Door" opens one last time and offers him a chance to join the cast of a new show in heaven with the Bard, himself, as director. The show ends as Laslo enters the door, turns, and takes his true, final bow.