"Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors," show #924

Bram Stoker created one of the most riveting, terrifying, and dramatically sound characters when he wrote Dracula. Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen’s comedic, loosely-based adaptation is absolutely not that; but it's now how I love to experience Dracula: as an absolute riot! Director Denise Graziani has a pitch-perfect cast delivering a terrifically fun production at Good Company Players’ 2nd Space Theater.

Following a journey of Dracula’s lust for Lucy, the characters you know from the novel and numerous versions of Stoker’s iconic vampire are present. What makes this production work so well is that the plot sets up the next joke–of which there are many–and the humor allows for patience during the plot-developing scenes. What this cast has in spades is their attention to comic detail and wholehearted commitment to the bits and bites the script offers. Joshua Shadle is a dynamically charismatic and debonair Dracula, appropriately pompous as he struts splendidly throughout his scenes. The chemistry he shares opposite Shelby Guizar’s thirsty Mina serves humor and one-sided attraction in the most alluring of fashions. Guizar’s timing and delivery makes her a perfect foil to sister Lucy, played with ingenue expertise by Cady Mejias. Mejias gives an engaging performance as the favored daughter of Adrian Ammsso’s Dr. Westfeldt, and she gives as much as she gets in every scene opposite a physical comedy-gifted Alexander Gonzalez, playing Jonathan Harker. 

Ammsso’s bumbling, lambast-filled Westfeldt is a highlight performance in support of Renee Newlove’s welcome Dr. Van Helsing, the no-nonsense but hopelessly romantic medical expert. The slow-burn between Drs. is delivered with high-comedy exaggeration well-tuned with the pacing and style of comedy Graziani helms. Casey Ballard and Guinevere J. Thelin gift audiences with a plethora of scene-stealing bits, most notably in Ballard’s Kitty Rutherford and Thelin’s Renfield. Ginger Kay Lewis-Reed’s costume design pops mightily on each character, while Elie Buford’s lighting design balances the foundational horror genre with pops of color and variety of whimsical brights which add to the farcical nature the show requires. David Pierce’s unit set is dark, gloomy, and incredibly well-used for the various locales and shifts throughout the show, keeping the fluidity and pace Graziani establishes sturdily intact. 

As the saying goes, this is not your grandmother’s Dracula, but I’m sure even she would have a delightful time at this hoot-and-holler experiencing Dracula in this fashion. Go see this show!