Dracula, the infamous bloodsucker of Bram Stoker's Victorian novel, gets a comic transfusion courtesy of Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, two playwrights who previously turned "Crime and Punishment" into a light-hearted romp. Prepare to scream with laughter for The Old Globe's "Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors."
Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire but his 1897 novel created the bloodsucking title character of "Dracula," which has inspired much of the pop culture lore surrounding these undead creatures of the night. Playwrights Greenberg and Rosen are not so much referencing Stoker's "Dracula" in their play but rather our pop culture knowledge and memories of vampires.
George Krissa plays Count Dracula in The Old Globe's production.
"I think we all grew up with some version of Dracula," Krissa said. "I think my first one would be The Count from 'Sesame Street,' now that I'm thinking about it, that's probably where I get my accent from. But yeah, it's been a constant fixture, I think, in everyone's pop culture life, from 'Twilight' to 'True Blood.' So everyone has a different version that they grew up with. In referencing that, we get to take everyone's collective love for it and turn it into something that's really exciting and really accessible for them, and very funny."
For Drew Droege, who plays Dracula's nemesis Dr. Van Helsing, it is Bela Lugosi's Count in the 1931 film "Dracula" that made an impact.
"We loved Universal monster movies growing up," Droege recalled. "I always loved 'Dracula.' I read Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' before I came to do this, and it's wonderful, but there's very little similarity between it and this show. But what's so smart about this show is that it gives you what you think you remember. I also watched a lot of the Hammer movies, and every one of them has different rules about Dracula — sometimes he can have sunlight, sometimes he's fine with garlic, sometimes you have to invite him in. So it gave Gordon and Steve free reign to make their own rules."
The play actually began during the pandemic as a multi-part podcast (with Alan Tudyk as the narrator) that ran about two hours long. It has since been trimmed to a tight 90 minutes of high energy farce that runs like a Swiss watch.
"This script is verbal farce," Droege explained. "Our director, Gordon Greenberg, who also wrote the show, was like, one 'um' or 'uh' can ruin the rhythm of the line. You have to really be on top of each other's energy because otherwise, it does go haywire."
The energy is palpable in the Globe's intimate theatre-in-the-round where the audience can be a mere inches away from the actors.
"What's really great about doing it in the round is that there's no place to hide," Krissa said. "So you have no choice but to be completely invested the entire time. And it's really great because we can see everybody. And there's moments when we can really take the audience in and make them a part of it so that we're all in on the same thing. And the stage is great because we can't have a very fancy, elaborate set because it would block people's view. So we have to make the story come alive ourselves and with our bodies and with our physicality. And it's getting to do it in a big open gym."
Droege especially gets to have fun with the physicality of his performance. There have been female Van Helsings before but as far as this Dracula fan knows this is the first drag Van Helsing.
"I think you're correct. I think this is the first," Droege concurred. "I think it is the very first drag Van Helsing and I am happy to be part of that lineage."
Droege actually gets to play two women in the show, Jean Van Helsing as well as Mina, and both come across as larger than life with elaborate costumes and massively funny wigs.
"But I never feel like the gender is the joke," Droege said. "A lot of times, I play women just for the laughs, but in this show, there's a lot of girl power and feminism, and it's a lot of fun. I rarely get to stand in that and be proud for women. Plus, this show has so many jokes about misogyny and about patriarchy. It's funny because Linda Mugleston, who's brilliant in all male roles in the show, is constantly sniping on women. If a man did it, it would be boring and unlikable. But it's fun to have a woman playing a man, badmouthing women."
Krissa gets to play a sexy and vain Count Dracula, and it is less about putting on costumes or wigs and more about what he takes off. When auditioning for the role, Krissa made sure to wear his tightest shirt and then he posted shirtless pics of himself on Instagram during callbacks since he knew good abs were an asset for the role. Dracula's self-love and workout routine are mined for laughs here but it also taps into an aspect of the iconic Count that has kept him popular for centuries.
"I think that there's something very seductive about the way that he's been written and the way that he's been played, that he's a lover," Krissa said. "It's seductive that he bites you on neck. How beautiful and vulnerable is that? And he only does that by getting close enough to you to be there. So I think that lights up a lot of intrigue and fantasy in people."
Plus there's the whole "The Lost Boys'" idea of "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire."
"We're obsessed with youth," Droege added. "We're obsessed with staying young. And I think there's something very appealing about staying young forever, stay alive forever. And so I think that's just always one of those appealing things that people really I really enjoy."
Krissa's vampire manages to be both sexy and silly. He gets a hot shirtless scene but then he speaks like Sesame Street's The Count. And when it comes to accents, Droege may have the best as he turns to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cloris Leachman's Frau Blücher from "Young Frankenstein" to give voice to his Van Helsing.
"What was great in rehearsal was that we absolutely had no dialog coach whatsoever," Droege said. "They gave us free reign to just commit and pick a voice because, again, that's the spirit of the show. In the show, we're a company of actors who come out and say, 'We're going to put on a show for you.' We put on a bunch of costumes. It's just like, this is what this actor thinks Van Helsing would sound like."
"Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors" is a 90-minute, no intermission breakneck farce that sheds no blood but may cause you to shed tears of laughter. No need to be afraid of this Dracula, he's strictly here to entertain you and suck a comic vein.
"Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors" runs through Nov. 3 at The Globe's Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.
