Theatre people are known for a great many things, one being their superstitions. We love to be very cautious when it comes to the arts. You don’t say the name of the Scottish Play (Macbeth) when standing in a theater, the “ghost light” is to keep spirits out, and you have traditions like the legacy robe. There are lots of things we do just because. It’s the way of the theatre world. When you don’t do these things or if you push back against the idea of them and something goes wrong? That’s when someone starts to scream and say, “SEE? That’s why we don’t say Macbeth in theaters!” because we’re all weird!
That’s all fine. That’s just how we are. So, you really wouldn’t expect a bunch of theatre people to sell clearly cursed dolls for charity, and yet, here we are. The Broadway Flea Market is a great event every year that raises money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Shows sell props, shirts, signs, and more, and fans can pick up memorabilia from some of their favorite things from musicals and plays! This year, that included two Raggedy Ann dolls found in the Majestic Theater that housed Phantom of the Opera for 35 years.
For $100, you could by these two dolls and take them home. WHY is a question to ask yourself and your God, but the minute I saw two Raggedy Ann dolls sitting there that have lived in a basement of a theater? I said no. Absolutely not. Why? Because I know that if a demon were going to possess any kind of doll, it would be a Raggedy Ann doll that people just left in a theater for 35 years and forgot about.
Annabelle is going to come back!
What was shocking to me, as someone who was a theatre kid my entire life and studied theatre in college, was that no one seemed to think to themselves, “Maybe let’s not sell the clearly cursed dolls.” Maybe this was a survival tactic. If they sell the doll to some theatre kid who thinks this is funny, maybe they can then pass on the curse? But that’s a death wish on the two women I saw buying them during my time at the flea market! Imagine my fear after I screamed about how these two dolls were cursed for twenty minutes, only to see them proudly held up in the air by their new owners, knowing that their days were probably numbered. After all, I’ve seen Annabelle.
Look, are all Raggedy Ann dolls doomed to be possessed? No. But I do think that dolls found in the basement of a theater that housed The Phantom of the Opera for 35 years—and we don’t know how long those dolls have been there—are maybe dolls we don’t want to touch. It’s just one of those things that theatre people especially should know better. We have so many superstitions, and yet! To those two dolls now off haunting their new owners, please leave me out of this.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
