There’s a moment, preshow at DRACULA, at the Rat, that the stage manager informs the audience that the show is about to begin, and probably would be funnier with a drink in hand. I
took their advice, but even without my happy hour espresso martini the comedic adaptation of the classic Bram Stoker novel would have still been a laugh riot.
A fairly faithful adaptation, Writer Pete McElligott and Director Michael Duran heightens the already quirky inhabitants of Transylvania into a rogue’s gallery of bizarre comedic caricatures. From the button-up, blue blooded Johnathan Harker, morphine addicted Dr. Seward, rambling cowpoke Quincy Morris, and mad crank Professor Van Helsing, the eight-person ensemble jumps back and forth across dozens of hilarious and charming characters.
Much of the cast, and the writer, are trained in improv comedy, and the adaption inherits a lot of its strength from classic improv comedy trick. The text of Dracula was already laid out as series of letters, clippings, and vignettes, and so going the extra mile to take each scene and “find the funny” within wasn’t too difficult of a stretch.
The adaptation does inherent some of the negative aspects of the genre as well, some jokes drag on a little too long, a few scenes revolve around games that don’t totally 100% work, but
most glaringly when everyone gets to be “the funny one”, no one really gets to stand out. This is most obvious with the count himself, who is but one very funny character in a sea of very
funny characters. All good vampire media is adapted around the “X-Factor” their bloodsuckers bring to the table, and unfortunately McElligott’s Count Dracula doesn’t have a particularly memorable characterization to differentiate him. Maybe the solution is to make Dracula the straight man? Maybe it’s to let him really go ham? Whatever the answer is, I trust the team to find it.
The Independent Artists movement 