Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors ─ Written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. Directed by Christopher V. Edwards; Scenic Design by Danielle Ibrahim; Costumes by Zoë Sundra; Lighting Design by Brian J. Lillienthal; Sound Design by Mackenzie Adamick. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project. At the Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts, in Watertown, through Nov. 1
By Mike Hoban
Halloween season is here for Greater Boston theater companies, and audiences are firmly in the clutches of monster-themed productions as they prepare for the City of Salem’s holiest of days. Umbrella Arts opened its season with Bat Boy: The Musical, and Merrimack Rep opens its season this weekend with the drama, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Actors’ Shakespeare Project has taken a comic approach to the genre, launching its season with Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, a hilarious send-up of Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror classic.
Unlike many variations on the classic, this campy, queer-adjacent interpretation adheres reasonably closely to the original. It begins with fussy, milquetoast real estate agent Jonathan Harker (a wonderful Nicholas Papayoanou) visiting the legendary Count’s castle to close the deal on his new London digs. Upon arrival, he’s greeted by a version of Dracula that owes more to The Rocky Horror Show’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter than Bela Lugosi’s Dracula or Max Schreck’s Nosferatu. Shirtless and clad in pink leather pants and a matching pink knee-length fur coat, Dracula (the outrageously animated Paul Melendy) signs agreements for a half-dozen properties, including Withering Manor, a decrepit, haunted old mansion with the additional feature of “screams at night.” During negotiations, Dracula tries to slyly seduce the naïve Harker until he sees a photo of Harker’s fiancée Lucy (an ebullient Thalia Gerloff), becomes taken with her beauty ─ especially her lovely neck ─ and ships off to London.
Following a mysterious shipwreck where he is the only survivor, Dracula unexpectedly shows up at Harker and Lucy’s engagement party. There he meets Lucy’s attention- and sex-starved sister Mina (a riotous Doug Lockwood), Lucy’s father, Dr. Westfeldt (Bobbie Steinbach), vampirologist Dr. Jean Van Helsing, Renfield, the bug-eating insane asylum patient, and a host of other deranged characters played by the five-actor cast via quick (and not-so-quick) costume changes. The hunky, narcissistic Dracula then sets out to do what he does best ─ vampiring and seduction.
The play is billed as a “mash-up of Mel Brooks and Monty Python with just a dash of Rocky Horror,” but it also owes much to playwright Patrick Barlow’s comic send-up of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, which was last staged locally in 2021 by the Greater Boston Stage Company (coincidentally starring Melendy) with its small cast filling dozens of roles. Mel Brooks’s influence on playwrights Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen permeates every scene, with its Borscht Belt asides and fourth-wall smashing. When Harker asks his driver if his frightened horses are alright, he responds, “Oh yes. I’ve trained them to punctuate my lines for dramatic effect,” and you can almost hear the late Marty Feldman’s Igor from Young Frankenstein delivering the line.
Melendy has long been Boston’s go-to guy for comic roles, and with good reason; he wrings every comic droplet from a script and replenishes it with his own high-octane comic concoction. He’s especially effective as the sex- and gym-addicted bisexual Dracula as he seeks out blood and affirmation with his unique comic flair. Steinbach is a hoot in multiple roles, particularly as the insect-obsessed Renfield; her dive out the window to chase a bat, then re-entering the scene as Dr. Westfeldt, is one of the play’s funniest moments. In the dual role of Mina/Dr. Van Helsing, Lockwood is a scream. His portrayal of Mina is doubly entertaining in his scenes with the diminutive Gerloff and Steinbach, where he tries to project a coy femininity despite his towering frame.
Two relative newcomers to Boston theater more than hold their own in a cast of veteran performers. Recent Emerson grad Nicholas Papayoanou (who’s already appeared in a number of Boston productions) is perfectly cast as the frightened-of-life Harker and adds comic spark to his minor roles. As Lucy, Gerloff is a real find. The BU School of Theatre student fully embodies a feminist bucking Victorian mores, unafraid to express her sexuality or intellect, and her facial expressions are priceless.
This is a true ensemble piece, and that extends to the design team. Danielle Ibrahim’s set opens as a black box with minimal props, then reveals a more detailed castle behind the curtains. Brian J. Lillienthal’s lighting is integral to creating the creepy castle atmosphere, and Mackenzie Adamick’s sound work perfectly punctuates the comic script. Zoë Sundra’s costumes are out of this world, from the detailed Victorian-era dresses to Dracula’s outrageous quasi-drag getups.
What Dracula does best is deliver consistent laughs. Not every schtick works, but others will have you convulsing with laughter. It’s a horrifically good time and a great escape from the much scarier real world.
For more information and tickets, visit www.ActorsShakespeareProject.org.
