The View Celebrates Halloween with 'The Viewsical' Special

Welcome to The Viewsical! This morning, The View's annual Halloween episode returned to celebrate iconic movie musicals, from Dreamgirls to Little Shop of Horrors, with each co-host transforming into a different character from cinematic history. The undoubted highlight of the day was Whoopi Goldberg, who spent the entire show sitting in Audrey II's monstrous flowerpot from Little Shop of Horrors.

The View's Halloween spectacular began with a pre-recorded video of the co-hosts debating how to handle this year's "movie musicals" theme. While Sara Haines goes for the "performer" look, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro compete over who will take the lead this year ("Anything you can do, I can do better," Navarro sing-songs), and Joy Behar has to be pressured into participating. "I've had enough of this," she tells her co-hosts. "It's enough with this stupid show."

Goldberg, for her part, is initially pitched a nun costume, but she refuses. "You know better than that. That's never going to happen again, ever," she says. "Always trying to make me a nun. Mamma Mia, here we go again!"

INTRODUCING 'THE VIEWSICAL': Grab your popcorn 🍿 and enjoy our #Halloween feature presentation, where movie musicals are the #HotTopic on #TheView! pic.twitter.com/AYzW5fnsXg

— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021

Cue the music, which introduced this year's theme, "The Viewsical." The co-hosts then got some time to introduce their costumes, each more elaborate than the last:

• Ana Navarro as Eva Perón from Evita
• Sunny Hostin as Dreamgirls' Deena Jones
• Sara Haines as Satine from Moulin Rouge!
• Joy Behar as Magneta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Whoopi Goldberg as Little Shop of Horrors' Audrey II

Not to be outdone, The View's executive producer Brian Teta dressed up as the Wizard of Oz. "It's a little on the nose," he said. "I'm a figurehead with no actual power." Could that be a reference to former co-host Meghan McCain's new audiobook, in which she says The View's producers have no control over their on-air talent?

It's hungry Audrey II from ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ played by our amazing @WhoopiGoldberg with some help from @JeremyMJordan from @littleshopnyc! #TheVIEWsical pic.twitter.com/Clf3jpGZuQ

— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021

After the commercial break, The View brought back another movie musical icon: Hairspray star Ricki Lake. For the first time in 30 years, Lake donned one of Tracy Turnblad's outfits, which she said have been living in her closet since the film debuted in 1988. "This dress, you guys, has been living in a bag for 34 years," said Lake. "This is my original dress that I model, I wear it in the Hefty Hideaway."

In the spirit of Halloween on #TheView and #TheVIEWsical, @RickiLake revives her iconic role of Tracy Turnblad from 'Hairspray' for the first time in three decades! pic.twitter.com/fgv2arIRRc

— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021

Lake went on to say that the dress was "the one piece [she] was able to keep" from Hairspray, and she was overjoyed to be able to put it back on. "When you guys called, I was like, 'I have my original dress. I have not pulled it out of the bag,'" she said. "I love it. And [costume designer] Van Smith, who died — so many of the people who created that movie behind-the-scenes are gone."

The special Halloween episode ended with an appearance from Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy and a performance from the cast of Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors — sadly, without an assist from Goldberg's Audrey II. What could have been!

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.