Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Combine elements of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Beetlejuice with The 39 Steps and Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, add a quick-witted, fast-paced, farcical script, mix in five phenomenally talented actor comedians, dozens of fanciful quick-change costumes, all wrapped up in a big batty vampire bow and you’d have Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. The show, written by Gordon Greenberg (who also directs it) and Steve Rosen, now playing Off-Broadway at New World Stages, is a riotous romp that’s sexy, spooky and utterly hysterical. Though Dracula (played by the devastatingly dashing and terrifically talented James Daly, who’s more of an Alexander Skarsgard
Tag: gothic
Radical Adaptations of Dracula & Frankenstein Ignite Classic Stage Company
For as many adaptations and interpretations as there are of the classic gothic horror novels Frankenstein and Dracula, it is hard to imagine two more creative, unique, radical and timely works that deal with the well-known tales and characters than the pair playing in a repertory cycle at Classic Stage Company (CSC). They are also strikingly contrasting works. Both are deeply engaging, provocative and compelling explorations of the source material -- each of which was written in the 1800s, one slightly predating the other near the end of the Victorian era. They remind the audience of timeless themes investigated in
BEETLEJUICE the Musical on Broadway
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! Cheering his name three times from the rafters wouldn’t be nearly enough to glorify this utterly fantastic stage adaptation. Praise the dark forces that conjured such a demonic delight! Its wild antics and grotesque yet glittery depictions of the underworld have restored lightness, cheek-aching laughter (as well as glimmers of unexpected depth) and unabashed, over-the-top, go-for-broke fun back to Broadway that hasn’t been this good since The Book of Mormon took over the town. It is a crowd-pleasing wonder that’s as irresistible as it is playfully offensive, just like the namesake character, who could have only been