Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is campy fun. But beneath the surface, there’s a story with heart.

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is a campy farce that reimagines Bram Stoker’s immortal Transylvanian count as a comically lascivious lothario. Co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen’s script is filled with pop-culture references (everything from the Beatles to Britain’s royal family), sexual innuendo and sight gags.

If that description makes you think the 2023 Off-Broadway hit is just mindless fun, Greenberg and Rosen have a surprise in store. There’s actually a message in the madness, but it’s subtle.

The 90-minute play, for which Blumenthal Arts served as producer, is “more than just jokes, jokes, jokes,” according to Christopher James Stevens, who plays the titular character.

(Christopher James Stevens)

It has a point to make, and that is: It’s possible to have all the material possessions you’ve ever desired and still feel empty. That’s the existential crisis vexing Dracula and nearly every other character in the play.

Blumenthal Arts is bringing the surprise (and surprisingly deep) hit to Booth Playhouse as part of the PNC Broadway Lights series from July 7 through Aug. 9. Seeing professional actors in such an intimate venue (the Booth Playhouse seats a little over 400) is a rare treat.  

The Blumenthal/Broadway connection

Many of the people involved in the original New York production, including co-author and original director Greenberg, will be in Charlotte for the show’s five-week run. One member of that team is already here. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is just the latest New York production that Blumenthal Arts helped bring to life.

Sometimes, Blumenthal Arts is an early investor in small, but mighty, shows that have big potential. Other times, Blumenthal is more than a financial backer; they’re a creative partner helping to shape the show.

Blumenthal Arts has helped produce Broadway musicals, including Back to the Future: The Musical and Broadway plays, such as the 2022-23 revival of Death of a Salesman starring Wendell Pierce as Willy Loman.

Blumenthal Arts was also an investor and co-producer of the Tony Award-nominated hit Titanique!, a musical currently wowing Broadway audiences. The show parodies James Cameron’s blockbuster movie about the disaster and its theme song belted out by Celine Dion.

Charlotte audiences benefit from Blumenthal Arts’ involvement, since these shows typically end up on one of the Blumenthal stages. Immediate Family (another show that Blumenthal helped produce), written by Broadway veteran Paul Oakley Stovall and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad, was on the Booth stage last August. And Titanique! has already announced that Charlotte will be a stop on its highly anticipated tour.

(The Company of Immediate Family. Photo Credit: Marc J Franklin)

Lastly, Charlotte is one of just a handful of cities that gets to experience the ordinarily dark and brooding Dracula as a comedic hero.

“Our goal was always to bring this hilarious show to Blumenthal,” said Tom Gabbard, President and CEO of Blumenthal Arts. “And finally, we’re able to do that in a first-class way.”

Another benefit for Charlotte’s theater community: Blumenthal Arts will engage local talent to serve as understudies in Dracula, creating meaningful opportunities for Charlotte-area artists to participate in a nationally recognized show and learn from industry-leading theater professionals.

The search for meaning

“Toward the end of the play, there’s a line about scarcity,” Stevens said from Tucson, the first of just two stops outside New York. “Having too much, these characters discover, is almost as bad as not having enough.”

That emptiness isn’t felt by Dracula alone. “By the end, there’s a paradigm shift for nearly every character,” Stevens said. “They have all they desire yet still feel like they’re missing something.”

That theme is established shortly after the curtain rises. “In the first scene, Dracula admits that he’s wined and dined, slept around and shopped around and that he has everything he’s ever wanted,” Stevens said. “He’s been with everybody in Romania but still hasn’t found the one. He longs for a meaningful relationship.’”

And that could be with a woman or a man.

In this version of the story, Dracula is an equal opportunity Casanova, much like The Rocky Horror Show’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter, who propositions Brad and Janet.

Dracula: Nocturnal, aristocratic … and a jock

Dracula has broad sex appeal—how else to explain all his conquests? So, the actor playing him needs to look the part. Plus, it’s a physically demanding role, so he needs to be in peak physical condition.

(Christopher James Stevens as Dracula. Photo Credit: Tim Fuller)

Producers hit the jackpot with Stevens, who played varsity baseball at Kenyon College. He’s also a tennis player, rock climber, yoga devotee and has been a ski instructor and wrestler.  

“I love to be physically engaged all the time,” he said. “That was part of my upbringing and why I’ve played so many sports. As an actor, I feel it’s important to take care of your instrument because it’s what you use to tell a story.”

His castmates need to be up to the task, too. With just five actors playing over a dozen characters (including a brilliant young scientist; her fiancé, a real estate agent; a psychiatrist; a vampire hunter; and more), actors must change costumes frequently — and quickly. 

Stevens gives credit to his castmates and the crew for all that’s required of them. He has his hands full playing just the lead.

“Everything is streamlined for me,” he said. “But my castmates go through a lot of quick changes. They do so much of the work in this play. And as much work as we’re doing on stage, the backstage crew is doing equal, if not more, work in getting the costumes changed and making the transitions as smooth as possible.”

There are plenty of chances for things to go wrong: “Sometimes, you’ll see a character on stage say one line of dialogue, leave the stage during another line and then reappear from a different entrance at the end of that same line,” he explained. “That doesn’t happen without a really well-oiled machine behind the scenes.”