Dracula

May 6

OPENING: October 13, 1977

CLOSING: January 6, 1980

Seen: February 1979

LOCATION: Martin Beck Theater

Have you ever noticed that certain characters tend to cycle in and out of popularity?

When I was in high school, everyone was obsessed with pirates. This was partly due to the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie – no one my age could get enough of it (I still hold a serious soft spot for it). Previous to the pirate craze, no one could get enough of mermaids. And after the pirate frenzy…it was vampires. The media couldn’t get enough. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had ended a few years previously but TV show such as True Blood and The Vampire Diaries kept the vamp love alive. And this was no exception in 1979, when my dad saw Dracula on Broadway.

This vampire love was nothing new. Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897, basing the character of Dracula on a real-life 15th Century Romanian governor Vlad the Impaler. As the decades passed, Dracula and his nemesis Van Halen became more and more sensationalized and idolized.

Dracula first came to Broadway in 1931. It lasted for eight performances. This short, limited run meant that the 1977 version was considered a revival.

Playing the role of Dracula in 1977 was Frank Langella. Langella today is well known today as a multi-time Tony winner but in 1977 he only had a three Broadway credits and a handful of TV guest star roles. He starred in another show in 1977 called Seascape that lasted only three months but it did net him his first Tony award.

As far as Tonys for Dracula went, it was nominated for five. Langella was one of the five nominations but it only took home Most Innovative Production of a Revival. This was a new category; it has gone through various incarnations since then but it is now known as Best Revival.

As far as the actual Production level went, my base level research tells me that set and costume designer Edward Gorey stole the show with his elegant visuals. Using a gray palate, he somehow managed to make the stage production almost look like a sketch book. He did always keep a glint of red on stage, which is the kind of little tidbit that as an audience member I always find fascinating. According to a New York Times review, the technical aspects of this show is what made it sing – the acting is described as “Hollow”, especially from Langella.

It couldn’t have been too rocky though because shortly after Langella left the production he was cast in a movie adaptation of the show with Lawrence Olivier playing Van Helsing.

By the time my dad arrived at the Martin Beck, Langella was already working on the film version. But who my dad saw was arguably better. He saw a man named Raul Julia who my fellow 90’s kids would recognize as Gomez Addams. Julia was Shakespearean trained Cuban actor who made a career out of playing villains. I can only imagine that his performance was haunting and beautiful.

Vampire love is nothing new. It was not brought to prominence by Twilight. But it media like the Broadway version of Dracula and the Twilight franchise that keeps it alive.

CAST: REPLACEMENT

LUCY SEWARD: Valerie Mahaffey

MISS WELLS, MAID: Kristen Lowman

JONATHAN HARKER: Alan Coates

DR SEWARD: Dillon Evans

ABRAHAM VAN HELSING: Jerome Dempsey

R.M. RENFIELD: Sam Tsoutsouvas

BUTTERWORTH: Everett McGill

COUNT DRACULA: Raul Julia

STANDBY FOR COUNT DRACULA: Alan Coates

STANDBY FOR VAN HELSING: Stephen Scott

UNDERSTUDIES: Dalton Cathey (Harker, Butterworth); Jack Betts (Dr. Seward); and John Thomas Waite (R.M Renfield).