ETC’s ‘Dracula’: Count on the Laughter

While Lost in Yonkers walks a fine line between poignancy and humor, there’s no such balancing act in the play that opens Ensemble Theatre Company’s 46^th season this month. Unless you count the challenge of mastering the fast pacing, quick-change scenes, joke-filled dialog and sheer physicality of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen’s campy and gender-bending take on Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire tale. 

Described as tossing Stoker’s story into a blender with Mel Brooks and Monty Python films, The Rocky Horror Show, andHitchcock’s The 39 Steps, this version of Dracula is a very new piece, havingpremiered in New York just 13 months ago. 

“None of us have done it, or even seen it before,” said director Jamie Torcellini, referring to the all-Equity cast of five, split between ETC veterans and those making their debut with the company. “But we’re having an absolute blast.”

Indeed, Terrors – which plays at the New Vic Theatre October 10-27 – finds Torcellini in his element, helming a show in which the stage choreography, expressions, and timing are almost more important than the words and costumes. 

“I love these kinds of sendup comedy shows that have so much physicality, with the actors playing so many different roles with quick changes,” said the Broadway and regional theater veteran. Torcellini has previously directed ETC productions of (yes) The 39 Steps, and starred in The Mystery of Irma Vep – a tonally similar satire/sendsup set in Victorian England that the Terrors playwrights have acknowledged as an influence. “The tricky part is because it’s only one act, 90 minutes straight through, once you get going you have to go. The comedy, the transitions, the set changes, and the music that brings us to where we’re going is all fast and furious. We’ve got to move. It’s really difficult, but it’s exhilarating.” 

Torcellini said that while the characters and situations are drawn from the literary Dracula’s adventures – from the English countryside to Transylvania – there’s a much more modern feel to Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. Much of that comes from the idea of the Count as a swaggering, sexually omnivorous hunk who early on rips his own shirt off to reveal a solid six-pack – or perhaps more like a full case. 

“There’s a lot of hip and sexy humor, gender bending and cross dressing – the writers call it ‘gay camp,’” he said. “One of the first lines in the show as they describe what you’re about to see talks about a hot guy who takes off his shirt.” 

Ensemble isn’t shying away from Dracula’s thirst for both blood and sex regardless of gender, having booked a special night for the LGBTQ+ community on October 20. Indeed, the dramaturg writes that the adaptation moves beyond the coding of subtextual or implicit queer traits without overtly labeling them as such, “…instead boldly presenting these themes in the audience’s face in the campiest way possible.” 

The key to making the show work, however, is to ground everything in as much reality as possible, Torcellini said.

“There’s a tendency to go too far and make it absolutely cartoony without any truth or substance behind it,” he said. “But we’re making sure that they’re still playing human people that have realistic reactions and human interactions.”

Even so, the director said, he hopes the audience walks away screaming. 

“Screaming with laughter,” he said. “The show is just hilarious. Even in rehearsal, there are moments where I laugh every time.”