That’s right theater lovers, Dracula is coming back to the big stage. It’s not exactly something new, New York theaters have had a few big attempts at vampire shows in the past few years – the Elton John musical “Lestat” in 2006, the musical “Dance of the Vampires” in 2002 and “Dracula, the Musical” in 2004. Unfortunately, they were some of the biggest Broadway flops of that decade. But thanks to the current vampire craze, they’re giving it another shot.
“Dracula,” the 1927 Hamilton Deane-John L. Balderston play based on Bram Stoker’s classic novel, which had a successful revival on Broadway in 1977 starring Frank Langella, will have a 13-week run at Off Broadway’s Little Shubert Theater starting Dec. 14, with an opening night scheduled for Jan. 5, 2011. So if you live in the area, get your tickets as soon as you can!
George Hearn, a Tony Award winner for “Sunset Boulevard” and “La Cage aux Folles,” is set to play the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, and film actress Thora Birch (“American Beauty,” “Ghost World”) has been cast as the ill-fated Lucy Seward.
As for the big title role, the producers have gone for someone a little less known. The Italian theater actor Michel Altieri, who recently played the Beast in the Italian premiere of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” will make his American stage debut as Dracula.
This whole thing just makes me incredibly jealous, seeing how I live no where near this theater. Cue the pouting… now. However, I was lucky enough to see Dracula at the ballet a few years ago and it was absolutely wonderful, so I’m not too unfortunate.
What about you guys, have you ever seen Dracula on the stage before? If not, do you think you ever will? Or do you prefer to sticking with vampire books, movies and TV shows?
– Moonlight
Love the cast so far! I’ve seen DRACULA (in different incarnations) many times on stage, including once Off Off Broadway. The best was two years ago in North Hollywood, a mesmerizingly interesting production that had a German Expressionistic “look” and managed to genuinely frighten me.
Wonderful! Too bad I live in Europe. Pouts too. I saw rock opera version of Dracula in Helsinki some years ago. It was made with zero budget – costumes and sets had mostly, well, be imagined – but unlike mega-budget trash like Waterworld, this story set in Victorian London and Tranylvania, rose wonderfully over it ZERO budget. Good singers – Lucy was standout – and great libretto and suddenly we are not in modern Finnish theatre at all, but in the world of gorgeous Gothic Romance.