Dracula (James Daly) cannot resist the neck of Lucy (Jordan Boatman) in Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors.
The stakes are high, and quite pointy, in Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. In this jocular take on that jugular-loving creature of the night, blood is sucked, true love is tested and vanity finds a way to survive in the soul of a monster who ironically cannot cast his own reflection in a mirror. Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic tale provides the groundwork, but the spirit of Mel Brooks and Monty Python, and the ghost of Charles Ludlam, lift the evening to its batty heights.
Mina (Arnie Burton) finds herself spellbound in the arms of Dracula (Daly).
Utilizing elements of romantic comedy, farce, puppetry and high camp, playwrights Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen serve up a confection that is keenly unwrapped by an ensemble cast of five. The performers are all as adept at blindingly fast costume changes as they are at landing a punch line and taking a pratfall. The script loosely follows Stoker’s plotline, give or take a character and a romantic entanglement or two, and it honors the book’s epistolary nature by beginning most scenes with a character reading aloud from a letter or diary. But, most notably, amid the running gags and bloodlust, the play shadows the novel in its expression of social commentary.
Dracula has long been required reading for Gender Studies graduate students and Feminist Theory scholars, what with its strong, at times vengeful, women, its meek and misguided men, and its open-minded protagonist who doesn’t mind grabbing a bite with anyone, regardless of their sex. All of these tropes are on full display here with the men learning their place alongside, and not ahead of, the ladies who do much of the tough work of dispatching with a pesky, albeit alluring, pain in the neck.
Dracula (Daly) consults his real estate broker, Jonathan Harker (Andrew Keenan-Bolger). Photographs by Matthew Murphy.
As directed by Greenberg, this particular Dracula (James Daly) is a rock star hunk with a sensitive side. He is at times shirtless, enjoys baking babkas as much as preening, and was bullied in his youth:
From the time I was a child, I had to endure the scorn and ridicule of the other children in my village. I couldn’t swing a cricket bat if my life depended on it. Also, they had never seen a boy in a cape.
His secret to overcoming this burden?
“Becoming very good looking. Also rich. And immortal.”
He would almost be lovable if it weren’t for that whole vampiric craving for eternal youth thing, which soon enough has him leaving Transylvania for the tasty treats to be found in England. He is aided by real estate broker Jonathan Harker (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) who presents his milquetoast credentials by telling his carriage driver to go slow because of his “chronic vertigo and digestive issues.”
Harker’s lovely, strong-willed fiancée, Lucy (Jordan Boatman), risks falling prey to Drac’s aggressive style, but it is Lucy’s frumpy and lustful sister, Mina (Arnie Burton), who ends up undead. The girls’ misogynist father, Dr. Westfeldt (Ellen Harvey) specializes in treating mental patients, like the insect-eating Renfield (also Harvey), but needs a different type of specialist for Mina’s woes. Enter Dr. Van Helsing (Burton), who, to Dr. Westfeldt’s dismay, is a woman. Horseplay (with actual hobby horses), romance and happy endings ensue as Westfeldt wises up, Harker mans up and Dracula realizes the power he really needs to exert is that of selflessness.
With no insects to eat, Renfield (Ellen Harvey) makes do.
As Renfield, Harvey is a hilarious and creepy mess, and she astounds with her quick changes into the dignified Dr. Westfeldt, earning a show-stopping round of applause on the night I attended with one particularly impossible transition. And Burton proves to be a camp master with two quite ridiculous drag performances. His Van Helsing is a close relative of Frau Blücher from Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, complete with stern German accent and tight updo. And as Mina, he brings to mind that other vampire victim, Lady Enid from Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep. The role is not without its poignant moments. A streak of loneliness runs through many of the play’s characters, and Mina seems to speak for them when she confesses to the Count, “My heart is so very hungry that even your table scraps will feel like a banquet.”
Given the subject matter, there is relatively little stage blood splashed about, which is good news for Tristan Raines, who provides the bright costumes that, presumably, are full of hidden snaps and Velcro straps. The clothes (and the actors therein) are flexible enough for the many bouts of physical comedy that are required of them, to say nothing of the occasional manhandling by life-size puppets.
Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors plays through Jan. 7 at New World Stages (340 West 50th St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and at 8 p.m Friday and Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and information, visit DraculaComedy.com.
Playwright: Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen
Direction: Gordon Greenberg
Sets: Tijana Bjelajac
Costumes: Tristan Raines
Lighting: Rob Denton
Sound: Victoria Deiorio
