Monster characters are real — in your imagination

You wanted to know

“Are monsters real?” asked a young patron who attended a showing of the movie “Hotel Transylvania” at Libertyville’s Cook Memorial Library.

Faster heart beat, sweaty palms, queasy stomach. These are some very real reactions to scary things like monsters.

“I don’t have to run and hide. I’m not afraid, I’m a superstar inside and you see — I’m not afraid,” a serenading pig croons to Farmer Brown in the musical “Click, Clack, BOO! A Tricky Treat,” now running at Chicago’s Lifeline Theater through Nov. 24.

Vampires, zombies, witches, Dracula and Frankenstein are monsters in folklore and age-old stories. They do scary things, but, somehow, people devise clever ways to defeat them.

In the movie “Monsters, Inc.,” a monster misunderstanding leaves the monsters unhappy about their scary jobs. So are monsters real? Yes, — in your imagination.

Sometimes it’s fun to be a little scared, like at Halloween when people dress like scary creatures. That idea plays out in the musical “Click, Clack, BOO!” adapted by James E. Grote from the book of the same title.

“The story sets up the characters and the difficulties they have. Farmer Brown is scared that Halloween vampires and witches are real. The animals, which are generally lazy troublemakers, see that Halloween can be fun, and they have a party to show Farmer Brown,” Grote explained.

This is the fifth musical that Grote and lyricist/composer George Howe have adapted from children’s books by Doreen Cronin. The premier of the musical coincides with the recent nationwide release of Cronin’s “Click, Clack, Boo! A Tricky Treat,” a first for Lifeline Theater.

Book illustrator Betsy Lewin, artist of “Click, Clack, Boo!” and other Cronin stories, will sign autographs at the Nov. 23 performance.

“This is actually one of my sillier, wackier, funnier plays,” Grote said. “What’s fun for me as an author is watching the kids in the audience giggle and laugh and have fun, but it’s also a show parents enjoy.”

Tickets for Lifeline Theater’s musical performance “Click Clack, BOO! A Tricky Treat” are $15. The show runs through Sunday, Nov. 24. For details, visit www.lifelinetheatre.com.