Beneath the Latin vocabulary posters and the map of the Roman Empire in Park Hall 145, Briton Dean and Nathan Altman sing about their desire for “hot blondes in odd positions.” A little kinky, perhaps, but their song wouldn’t be too out of place in most musicals.

Then again, Dean is wearing hot pink high heels. He and Altman play the titular characters in the Town and Gown Players’ production of Charles Busch’s “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” which is quite different from most musicals.

The play opens alongside an adaptation of the Internet sensation “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” which tells the story of Billy (played by Matt Hardy), a would-be-mad scientist whose two goals are conquering the world and winning the favor of Penny, the girl of his dreams (played by University senior Joanna Eldredge).

“We started hearing about some productions that had been done . and had gotten mixed reports on which ones were approved and which ones were, ‘Well, we’ll do the show and hope we don’t get in trouble,’” said director Steven Carroll. “Thanks to the miracles of Facebook, we actually got in touch with one of the writers. . [The royalties] were cheaper than it costs to buy some meals.”

Once the show’s creative staff obtained the rights to produce “Dr. Horrible,” it began the process of adapting the Internet miniseries for the stage. Among the important sources outside of the miniseries were the comic book spin-offs of the story.

Feature presentation “Vampire Lesbians” features two immortal vampires and their journey through life, which includes stops at ancient Sodom, 1920s Hollywood and contemporary Las Vegas.

“It’s a romp; it’s a campy send-up of horror movies,” Carroll said. “They’re vamps in the truest sense of the word.”

Perhaps the most obvious challenge to Dean’s performance was portraying a woman.

“[Altman] has done drag before, so he’s been able to give me a lot of advice on . how to move like a woman when you’re actually a guy,” Dean said. “We’ve tried to make the makeup look as feminine as possible.”

Despite the show’s comedic nature, Dean still needed to develop realistic motivations for his character.

“It’s about the relationship between the two vampires. . [My character] gets more and more power and she becomes stronger,” he said. “By the end of the show she kind of rounds back around to accepting who she is and what she’s become.”

Dean believes portraying a character in a comedy actually allows him more creative freedom with the character.

“For these characters, it’s very, ‘These are the lines and here’s your status and just run around with it,’” he said. “I’ve kind of gotten to decide how I want the character to feel, since it’s not like she has to feel one way or the other.”

The overarching themes of comedic horror clearly point to the upcoming Halloween season.

“After looking at how strong a counterpoint ‘Dr. Horrible’ would be for ‘Vampire Lesbians of Sodom’ . we started thinking about the two of them as companion pieces,” Carroll said. “We were talking about [Dr. Horrible] the other day [and said], ‘Is there a happy song in this damn show?’”

The performances, produced cooperatively with the Boybutante AIDS Foundation, will benefit AIDS research.

“It’s one of those rare opportunities for two organizations that draw on similar audiences, but at the same time have different patron pools, to really get a chance to pool our efforts, try our best to put on the best show that we can and raise awareness for both of our groups,” Carroll said. “People are still concerned about AIDS despite what’s going on financially.”