DRACULA
By Steven Dietz
From the novel by Bram Stroker
ICT Mainstage, Irving Texas
REVIEWED 11/3/07 PERFORMANCE
Directed by Bruce R. Coleman
Lighting Design by Sam Nance
Sound Design by Andi Allen
Costume & Scenic Design by Bruce R. Coleman
CAST
RENFIELD……...……..John de los Santos
MINA………………......…Esther Selgrath
LUCY…………......………Julie Reinagel
HARKER…………....…..William Lanier
SEWARD……………......Shane Hamlin
DRACULA…………....….Nikolai David Kiselov
VAN HELSING…..…….Greg Jackson
ENSEMBLE………….....Katy Smith, Andrew Worley, Raven Garcia,
Daniel
McCalip, Heather Sims
_______________DRACULA_______________
Okay, so you like to wear a billowing cape and a tux with
tails 24 hours a day. And you can only meet night. So you
talk in a strange dialect that is so strange that all
people can do around you is smile and nod. And so what if
you cannot eat a roast chicken, but instead your diet
consists of doing a hickey on someone and draining them of
their blood. But enough about my last match.com date.
I'm actually talking about the prince of darkness, that
toothy man himself-Dracula. When it comes to bringing this
vampire's evil journey to the stage, it has been met
with such horrific results that it would make a werewolf by
a box of hair removal products and go into the witness
protection program.
In 2004 I sat in the Belasco Theater on Broadway stifling my
giggles as I watched the train wreck called DRACULA THE
MUSICAL by Frank Wildhorn. Never in my life had I sat at a
Broadway show where people walked out throughout the first
act. When the second act started, the couple right in front
of us whispered to each other and made a dash for the exit
as the lights dimmed. The score was just god awful and the
show was just so bad, all you could do was cover your mouth
from letting out your laughter. You knew you were watching a
Broadway
musical flop before your eyes when you watched in horror
some of the women of the chorus portray hairy male sailors
in the dock scenes. Only instead of looking like rough sea
loving sailors, they resembled butch lesbians heading off to
a military themed gay bar.
Wildhorn's take on the dude with long fangs set to music
would last only a paltry 157 performances on Broadway. You
would have thought that Wildhorn and his producers would
have caught the hint in 2003
with the overblown musical titled DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES
opened at the Minskoff. Written by the guy who wrote
Meatloaf's songs, it starred the Phantom of the Opera
himself, Michael Crawford. This musical would suck (no pun
intended) for a measly 56 performances on Broadway. Then
there was Sir Elton John's take on the Anne Rice version of
Mr. "I vant to drink your blood" in the dreadful LESTAT,
which opened at the Palace Theater in 2006. This vampire
musical would have a stake
driven through it and put us all out of our misery after a
puny 39 performances.
Take
note composers-the dude in the black cape cannot be set to
music.
As a play, Mr. "I need dental work or braces" fared a little
better (but not much) on Broadway. Hamilton Deane and John
L. Balderston based their version on the novel by Bram
Stoker. It premiered in 1927
and went on to rack up 261 performances. Deane and
Balderston's play would go on to have two revivals. There
was a 1931 revival at the Royale, lasting a jaw dropping 8
performances. Ouch. Funny tidbit about this flop, Count
Dracula was played by an actor named Courtney White. Anyone
who names their baby boy "Courtney" is asking for trouble if
you ask me.
However, in 1977 they finally got it right. This version was
directed by Dennis Rosa and starred a young, tall, and very
sexy looking Frank Langella. For this version the eroticism
was heightened in the piece
and had a sexy actor portraying the Count, DRACULA finally
achieved true success. This revival received glowing
critical praise and played for a robust 925 performances. It
would be nominated for five Tony Awards, and winning two,
including Best Revival.
This brings us to a new play written about the prince of
darkness by Stephen Dietz, who currently teaches at the
University of Texas at Austin. The piece is now being
produced at ICT Mainstage in Irving, and like all the
aforementioned versions, this one too achieves mixed
results.
Alas the major imperfection of this version is Dietz's bloated script. The dialogue gets way too flowery and snooty for my tastes. There are endless monologues with so much grandstanding-but never really expressing raw, to the core honest emotions. The script is soaked in Shakespearean "wanna be" soliloquies dripping in flowery composition…
...and taking forever to make its point-that is if they even
do. It gets to the point where you want to scream from you
seat, "Oh just say what you mean!"
Another problematic issue is the endless exposition. Dietz
has written exposition that goes on forever, or as the Count
says "oceans of time". An example of this is in the second
act when the characters have to tell us all about the
obstacles they had to overcome to make it to Dracula's
castle. Jeez, just tell us "It wasn't easy, but we got
there" and move on. All of this nonsensical exposition is
such a glaring problem that you do feel like a vampire, in
that you shield your eyes from its blinding, eye sore
dialogue.
There is also the issue of Dietz going all over the place with scenes popping back and forth, all over London and Transylvania that you beg for a mapquest just to figure out where in the hell you are in the play. Even in Frances Ford Coppola's film DRACULA I was confused in its time structure. And this was with film editing on his side and I was still baffled on where we were time wise within its boundaries.
But where I think Dietz failed his work the most is the
devoid of any real sensual
romance. Remember, this is a blood thirsty creature that
falls for a mortal and will do anything to have her. Then
there is Lucy. Here Dietz no longer has several suitors
fighting for her hand, instead he has one. Lucy tends to be
the careless, free spirit that flirts constantly with all
the men around her. But in Dietz's he has her one suitor
(Seward) bellowing constantly, but never truly expressing
what he feels in his heart and pants. You want to really
FEEL that heartache, lust, and passion they feel for each
other. Same goes for Harker & Mina. You want to feel empathy
for their battle with this unknown dark lord who is
compromising their love with his evil lust. But there is not
an ounce of that in Dietz's dialogue. And if it was, it must
have been so over layered in exposition or artsy fartsy
language that I didn't pick up on it.
I seriously believe that in the wrong hands this production would be unwatchable, but when you have Bruce R. Coleman at the helm, well that's a different story.
Coleman has racked up major overtime with this production by layering the piece with snazzy staging and blocking elements. He has constant flow, movement, and purpose within the direction and staging, with some unique additions. The pace though could use a little more kick though, especially within all that exposition. There are a couple of performances that skate very close to being a tinny bit hammy and over the top, but Coleman wisely reels them back.
I honesty do not know of any other director in the metroplex
that directs as well designs his own sets and costumes-all
with equal finesse. Coleman's vision of set and costume is
dramatic and daring. The set is a
n
ornate gothic piece of larger than life sea creatures of
half man/half serpent that appear to swim up from the stage
boards. Coleman has wisely designed two sliding platforms
that aide so much in trying to make sense of Dietz's script
of going all over the map in his scenes. The middle has two
heavily ornate doors that are beautifully crafted and
designed. There are stairs all over the set, and to complete
it all- a black chandelier that lights up and covered in
chains.
The costumes go from Romania warriors to elegant costumes of
lace, satin, and silk, all in dark rich colors. But this is
a Coleman show, so you know he will add his own personal
touches, which is one of my favorite elements in a
production that Coleman directs & designs. For "Van Helsing"
he has him all in leather-pants, vest, and boots. This just
gives the character a whole new vibe. For "Seward" it is an
elegant black, knee length coat that has gold ornamentation
that looks exquisite on stage.
But I must admit I don't know if I'm still on board with Dracula's costume. Instead of the tux and billowing cape, he is dressed in a long, black kimono with shimmering trim and huge sleeves. At times it made him look like he was about to break into "A hundred miracles" from FLOWER DRUM SONG in that costume. While I sincerely do understand on trying to steer away from the "We've all seen that before" format- I honestly don't know if this costume really worked for me. Then again, that could be just me.
Sam Nance's lighting design is superb here as well. From the special moon gobo, to dripping the set in vibrant, dark, and lush colors aided so much in giving the production emotional weight.
The production gets a terrific kick off with an energetic, bold, and exciting battle in Romania between various warriors. The fight choreography created by Oscar Steele is riveting and just gives the play the right amount of thrills and chills it requires. The choreography is pulled off with masculine authority by the company as well.
Another element that while I enjoyed thoroughly-I didn't exactly get the meaning-was the second opening dance piece. Here Coleman & choreographer Sergio Garcia created a dance piece involving Seward, Lucy, Renfield, and Harker-but no Dracula or Mina. Thus I really didn't understand what it was supposed to symbolize since the main character was not even involved in the dance piece. But I did think it was choreographed beautifully and danced with elegance and class by the company.
The cast for the most part did quite an admirable job in trying to bring emotion and strength to Dietz's haphazard play. However there were some British dialects that did disappear here and there. Nonetheless, there were a few performances that stood out in my mind.
As
"Van Hesling", Greg Jackson brought to the table a strong &
highly entertaining performance as the doctor who knows how
to get rid of Dracula. The actor's dialect never once
disappeared from his characterization. Usually this role is
played by a much older, heavyset actor- not here. With
flowing blonde hair, goatee, eye liner, and a costume of
leather-the role had a whole rock star homage to it that
gave the character much more command on the stage. Jackson
provided the role with a muscular, vivid character arc that
he successfully achieved. Jackson was really terrific in the
production.
Nikolai David Kiselov had the most difficult role, which of
course is "Dracula". It is almost impossible not to escape
the trappings of falling into the patterns of past actors in
that role-Gary Oldman, Christopher Lee, & Bela Lugosi. And
there are moments when Kiselov does hit those vocal
inflections and acting patterns as those men-but Kiselov
still does achieve in creating his own portrayal of the
Prince of Darkness. A young, handsome actor who commands the
stage superbly, he glides across the stage with whispering
effect. His best acting scene is when he transforms himself
as the very old Dracula-complete with his body all
disfigured and twisted; it's a marvelous transformation to
observe. It's a tough challenge for any actor to overcome
the kitschy, pop culture homage and images of past Draculas-but
for
the most part Kiselov rises to the challenge. He's an actor
to watch for in future productions around the metroplex.
As "Dr. Seward", Shane Hamlin at first was a bit wooden and seemed not to connect with the subtext or his characterization arc, but midway Act one he did and in return provided a very satisfying performance. I think once he truly digs deeper into the subtext (he needs to find his own as Dietz obviously provided none for him to find); the performance can become richer and fuller. Regardless, Hamlin shines in the piece as well.
Julie Reinagel hits all the right marks as the flirtatious "Lucy". With a gorgeous mane of blonde hair, she gives the right amount of school girl exuberance the role requires. But the actress truly earns her acting gold stars when she must dive into the darker portions of her characterization when she transforms into a vampire herself. She is the only one on stage who truly "gets" the eroticism of the play, using her body and voice to bring out the sensuality and hypnotic stage that Dracula causes her to be. She is fascinating on stage.
For me personally, it is actors who take huge, artistic risks in the craft of acting that earn my deepest respect. Even if they fail, they had the guts to take that challenge. To play the same type of role over and over again never shows growth within an actor. It shows no artistic risk. No challenge. So when I see a thespian do that, attention must be paid. That can be said of John de los Santos.
This pretty boy actor is primarily cast around town as a principal or featured dancer, and at other times as the hot boy. He has done some outstanding work in several gay themed plays as well, such as MAMBO ITALIANO and VALHALLA. But for this production, he has taken a huge artistic risk in tackling "Renfield", the lunatic whose diet consists of insects.
Normally the role is played by a character actor who tends to sound like Dwight Frye in the original 1931 film. You know the one with that odd laugh and all those "yes master" lines. Not de los Santos. The actor almost creates an operatic, larger than life characterization that segues from quiet remorse to shrieking hysterics. The actor literally attaches himself to Reinfeld's horrific, demented mind & skin as he sits in the asylum, which results in a bone chilling performance.
Watch his body and emotions explode when he discovers that he was just a toy for Dracula's needs and then simply discarded. De Los Santos uses his handsome face and eyes to disappear completely and literally transform into a grotesque gargoyle. Sure, there were moments when the performance did hit a few over the top moments, but that was rare within his performance. But for Mr. De Los Santos to tackle such a totally different role than what he has ever done before, well that shows a true actor who will take the challenge-and the end result is that he succeeds superbly here.
Rounding the company in delivering audience pleasing roles
include
William Lanier as "Harker" and Esther Reinagel as "Mina". A
round of applause must also go the hard working
mini-ensemble that work their
butts off throughout the evening: Daniel McCalip, Heather
Sims, Katy Smith, Andrew Worley, and Raven Garcia (no
relation to the editor).
I must also compliment the ending as well. The idea of
costuming the ensemble and Reinfield in today's clothing
gave the piece a really terrific button-like it was a full
circle of time we traveled. Another
fantastic idea from the mind of La Coleman!
Like a flying bat in the cold, eerie night, Dietz's script
went all over the place, and only on rare occasion did it
land on solid ground. I was however thoroughly impressed
with the direction, production design, and performances.
Kudos as well for ICT Mainstage for not succumbing to
another paint by numbers DRACULA production we've all seen a
thousand times. Instead they opted to produce and create a
totally fresh new approach to the well known legend-that for
the most part paid off handsomely here.
GRADE: B+
____________________________________________________________________
DRACULA plays through November 17th. Performed at the Dupree
Theater,
Irving Arts Center 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd. Fridays &
Saturdays at 8
pm. Thursday, November 15 at 8 pm. Sunday Nov 11, 2007 at
2:30 pm.
Tickets: Friday–Sunday are Adults $18 and $16 for
Seniors/Students
Thursday- Adults $15, & $13 for Seniors/Students. Student
Rush-$5 cash
5minutes before curtain if seats available Box Office:
972/252-2787
