Coop's Nightmare brings Alice Cooper's shock rock to the Celestia on Halloween

Northeast Ohio's Alice Cooper tribute headlines Wadsworth's Celestia Theater on Saturday, Oct. 31, with Ozzy/Sabbath tribute Bound in Black and a $500 costume contest.

If there's one night of the year built for an Alice Cooper show, it's this Saturday. On Halloween, Oct. 31, Coop's Nightmare takes over the Celestia Theater at Wadsworth Square, and the room is asking you to dress for it.

The details, straight from the Wadsworth Square Foundation's event page: doors open at 7 p.m., the show starts at 8 p.m., and the theater's Flame Backstage Bar opens at 5 p.m. for anyone who wants to make an evening of it. Special guests Bound in Black, an Ozzy/Sabbath tribute, open the night. There's also a Halloween costume contest with $500 in cash prizes. The Celestia is at 151 Main Street in Wadsworth.

Coop's Nightmare is a tribute band paying homage to the shock-rock pioneer, as the Kent Stage put it when it booked them, with a show built to capture the feel of Alice Cooper's famously theatrical concerts. That's the whole pitch, and on Halloween it doesn't need much more. Cooper made the guillotine and the snake part of the rock vocabulary; a band that leans into that tradition belongs on a stage the night everyone else is in costume too.

This is very much a Northeast Ohio act. In our records, Coop's Nightmare plays the Akron–Canton area more than any other market, and its recent run has stuck close to home: the Kent Stage, and a headline slot at the Warren Community Amphitheatre that the Business Journal noted landed the night before Alice Cooper himself played Youngstown. Tribute bands live or die on their regional following, and this one has clearly built one.

The pairing helps. Bound in Black's Ozzy and Sabbath set is a natural lead-in, two pillars of heavy, theatrical rock on one bill, and it gives the night the feel of a proper Halloween double feature rather than a single act. Given that both bands trade on spectacle, expect the crowd to bring some of its own.

The Celestia is the right room for it. The theater in downtown Wadsworth seats a crowd in the high hundreds, big enough to feel like an event and small enough that the costumes in the third row are part of the show. It's operated by the Wadsworth Square Foundation.

A few practical notes. This is Halloween night on a Saturday, so expect a full house and plan for downtown parking. Tickets are sold through the foundation's event page; buy there rather than through resale sites, which are listing seats well above face value. If you're entering the costume contest, check in early.

There's something right about watching a tribute to rock's original ghoul in a small-town theater on the one night of the year when the whole audience shows up in character. Wear the makeup. Bring the snake, if it's a toy.

Sources: Coop's Nightmare with Bound in Black – Wadsworth Square Foundation (wadsworthsquare.org); Wadsworth Square Foundation / Celestia Theater (wadsworthsquare.org); Coop's Nightmare – The Kent Stage (kentstage.org); Weekend entertainment: A nightmare for Alice Cooper (Business Journal Daily) (businessjournaldaily.com); NPR transcript on Alice Cooper (npr.org)