Interviews

Meet the Transylvanian Twins Behind the Craziest Show in New York This Halloween

Mihaela and Gabriela Modorcea wrote and star in ”Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil”.

Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea star in Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil at St. Luke's Theatre.
Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea star in Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil at St. Luke's Theatre.
(© Gabriela Modorcea)

Encountering Mihaela and Gabriela Modorcea is a little like stepping into a reality TV show but being unable to spot the camera crew. The Romanian-born twins speak in a bewildering rapid-fire cadence, completing each other's sentences and jumping from digression to digression until you forget what you originally asked them. Within this blitz of words, they liberally blend fact with fiction until it is unclear which is which, casually tossing around phrases like, "Our father, Vlad the Impaler." Is this disorientation some sort of vampire trick, luring us into their lair until it is too late to escape?

New York audiences can find out for themselves in Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil, their new musical at St. Luke's Theatre. The show promises to be a heady cocktail of mythology, autobiography, and pop psychology. In essence, it is the musical to see this Halloween. Before you attend, here are some basic "facts" you ought to know:


Wicked Clone is a "cinema musical".

Projections have become commonplace in the theater, but few shows take them as seriously as Wicked Clone, which features epic film sequences from beginning to end. "If you see our show, you will think we have a 10 million dollar budget," Gabriela maintains. Much of the film comes from their native Romania, and it has all been carefully selected by the twins…or has it?


The show is directed by God.

Sean Hayes appeared as God in Broadway's An Act of God". He will not be reprising his role in Wicked Clone''.
Sean Hayes appeared as God in Broadway's An Act of God". He will not be reprising his role in Wicked Clone''.
(© Jim Cox)

Yes, God is actually credited in the show program as the director, in addition to making several onscreen appearances. "God appears a lot onscreen and talking to the audience," Gabriela reveals, adding, "God and Lucifer are both characters in the musical."

The show also features a big production number called "I Am Like God," which invites the audience onstage to sing along. Mihaela notes, "The song is dedicated to all the people who have to overcome a wicked clone in their lives."


The story is based on Mihaela's actual experience running away to America.

When Mihaela was 24, she left Gabriela in Romania to start a new life in the United States. "My sister made me suffer a little bit," she explains, without going into too much detail. "I started hating Transylvania." From that, she wrote an entire novel (available for sale in the lobby and at Barnes & Noble) about a woman who runs away from her evil vampire twin to become a human being. In a Shakespearean flourish, her "wicked clone" disguises herself as a man and follows her to America. Since Gabriela and Mihaela are now reunited in New York, you can guess at how the story turns out — but you cannot really know unless you go see the show.


Gabriela plays a wicked clone in the musical, but your wicked clone might actually be inside your brain.

Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea star in Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil at St. Luke's Theatre.
Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea star in Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil at St. Luke's Theatre.
(© Gabriela Modorcea)

"Each of us has a wicked clone that never leaves us," explains Gabriela. "Each of us has something to hinder us from reaching our purpose in life." The twins think that terms like "anxiety" and "depression" indicate just how oppressed average Americans are by their wicked clones.

"I want people to leave behind the job they hate," asserts Mihaela, adding, "Even if it is hard, I want them to do what they love and not be afraid of the wicked clone."


There will be blood.

Waitress is the Broadway show most associated with pie, but Gabriela and Mihaela have an answer to that.
Waitress is the Broadway show most associated with pie, but Gabriela and Mihaela have an answer to that.
(© Jeremy Daniel)

A recent press release announcing the October 29 opening night noted that the twins will be serving the purest blood, bottled and imported from Transylvania. It is guaranteed to leave its drinkers feeling 20 years younger. "For the still hungry ones," says Mihaela, "we will serve sour dark cherry Transylvanian pie drenched in syruped blood from our father — Vlad the Impaler!"

The pie is usually served with walnuts, but some will come without. "For allergy and non-allergy," Gabriela hastens to add.


Their father is either a highly respected author or a medieval tyrant.

Vlad the Impaler is the 15th-century Wallachian prince whose cruelty is widely seen as the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. He may or may not be the father of Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea.
Vlad the Impaler is the 15th-century Wallachian prince whose cruelty is widely seen as the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. He may or may not be the father of Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea.

The prospect of being raised by Vlad the Impaler might seem terrifying, but the twins' actual father was something much scarier, especially for two aspiring young actors — a critic. Grid Modorcea is a prolific Romanian writer, filmmaker, and polemicist. "Our father wrote 96 books," Gabriela proudly shares before elaborating on the challenges of having such an outspoken dad: "We always begged our father not to write bad things about the directors in Romania, because maybe we will work with them; but he always said he had to tell the truth…so we had to leave Romania." Luckily, most directors in New York don't read Romanian.


Before they arrived off-Broadway, they competed on America's Got Talent as the Indiggo Twins.

America's first taste of Gabriela and Mihaela was on the NBC reality competition show America's Got Talent. They sang "New York, New York," and David Hasselhoff called them "Dracula's girlfriends."


Their song "La La La" was sampled on the Jay-Z and Kanye West album, Watch the Throne.

"La La La" was featured in the song "Murder to Excellence," widely considered the centerpiece of the certified platinum hip-hop album.


The twins want to be pioneers in the emerging genre of "beyond reality TV."

Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea star in their off-Broadway musical, Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil.
Gabriela and Mihaela Modorcea star in their off-Broadway musical, Wicked Clone or How to Deal With Evil.
(© Gabriela Modorcea)

Now that they've had their fling with reality TV on America's Got Talent, the twins are ready to take it to the next level. "We want beyond reality TV," Mihaela declares, "Artistic dimensions. Surreal things. Paranormal. Supernatural. It will blend with reality, but beyond…second level." Watch your back, Andy Cohen: The Modorceas are coming.