Drac is back and he’s ready to take a bite out of the Big Apple! DRACULA, A Comedy of Terrors is a Bram-new comedy that New Yorkers can really sink their teeth into. Filled with clever wordplay and anything-goes pop culture references, it’s a 90-minute, gender-bending, quick-changing, laugh-out-loud reimagining of the gothic classic, perfect for audiences of all blood types.
In the treacherous mountains of Transylvania, a meek English real estate agent takes a harrowing journey to meet a new and mysterious client, who also just happens to be the most terrifying and ferocious monster the world has ever known: Count Dracula! As famed female vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing and company chase Drac from Transylvania to the British countryside to London and back, their antics are guaranteed to increase your pulse and cause bloodcurdling screams—of laughter.
Indeed, what matters most here is the sublime work of a five-person ensemble who, pun intended, sink their teeth into this production with the right amount of seriousness and silliness. The ultra-buff James Daly is the only actor with only one job to do, and he does it quite well: offering up a preening, pouty Dracula who believes that his looks can get him whatever he wants—and when, surprisingly, they don’t—takes a bite of whatever (or whomever) he gets his hands on.
The show makes it difficult to begrudge pointing out the occasional imprecise, maybe, I’ll say it, potentially transphobic “man in a dress” nature to some of the jokes because, after all, it advertises itself as a gender-bending reenvisioning of the text. But the jokes Harvey, who plays Renfield and Dr. Westfeldt, tells have more to do either with insanity or the doctor’s misogyny. Irony, certainly, but not necessarily the same as the joke being about Harvey crossing gender in her performance. It’s a shame to have to mildly take the show to task because, next to Daly, Burton has the most fun on stage, truly going buck wild with his expressions and gestures, pushing Dracula’s tone to its very limits. But, perhaps that’s the lesson of the Victorians after all: you push too hard against certain boundaries without having a plan for the consequences and get bitten.
2023 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Play | Arnie Burton |
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