A wax museum is a superb place to confront your greatest celebrity enemies without enduring the threat of being reverse-paparazzi'd or recruited into Scientology. Safely approach lifeless lifelike celebs with today's Groupon: for $14, you get a ticket to the After Dark Halloween event at Madame Tussauds, a world-renowned interactive wax-figure museum (up to a $25 value; tickets are $22 online in advance, plus fees, or can be purchased at the door for $25 from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. or for $20 between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.). This deal is only good for opening night on Thursday, October 21, 2010.

For more than 200 years, Madame Tussaud and her museums have delighted the masses with impressively detailed and meticulously maintained wax renditions of celebrities, musicians, political figures, and sports stars. For the special Halloween event, the museum turns off the lights to the mannequin menagerie and blurs the line between living and dead with the addition of live actors that seamlessly blend in with the paraffin personages. As you walk the halls, the actors wait for the right opportunity to surprise unsuspecting visitors by jumping out and reading popular Garfield comic strips.

Madame Tussaud began crafting wax facsimiles at the tender age of 17 while working as a housekeeper for a skilled wax sculptor. During the French Revolution, Tussaud furthered her craft by searching through gaggles of corpses for the freshest decapitated heads, which she used to make beautifully detailed death masks. When her sculptor-employer died, Madame Tussaud inherited his vast collection of wax figures and eventually opened a museum. Today, the Madame Tussauds wax-figure experience is fully interactive—you can hug them, high-five them, and comb their hair—so bring a 20-megapixel digital camera and make a poster of yourself dancing with famous people, including Marilyn Monroe, Nick Nolte, and Evelyn Salt.

After Dark involves walking, darkness, and stairs, so it is suggested that you wear comfortable shoes and proper attire. Not recommended for anyone with heart problems or epilepsy or children under 12; guests under 15 must be accompanied by an adult.

Reviews

Though there aren't specific reviews for After Dark, Madame Tussauds museum in New York has a four-star average from Yelpers and Yahoo! Locals and has an average of 3.5 owl-eyes from TripAdvisors.

• My girlfriend and I had a great time playing tourist and taking pictures with all the figures. The haunted house made the trip experience though. – Toy, Yahoo! Local
• Every new room has a least a dozen photo ops, which is great if you really want that picture with your favorite celebrity but haven't met them yet. You can watch a mini-movie in one of the museum's theaters, learn how the statues are made and buy a friend or family member a souvenir at the gift shop. – Fage Von Arc, Yahoo! Local