Lasting Impressions by Florence McDermott

Who Needs Broadway?

Who needs Broadway when you have thriving theatre in Otsego County? In order to catch the very short run of most regional productions, it’s necessary to be vigilant. Get on a company’s e-mail list to notify you in advance of their schedule. Some productions may be as short as a one-night stand, or as fleeting as a flirtation from “Emily in Paris.”

A case in point is the recent “Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors” presented by Bigger Dreams Productions, which closed October 13 at the Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center. One can only hope the company will make this show an annual Hallowe’en event. A review of the October 4 performance below gives an idea of what may be in store if you take a chance on a blind date with an unknown company.

Count Dracula may have been born in Transylvania, but his heart belongs to Hollywood. From the moment the Count erupts onto the stage in black leather stud-wear, a cross between Harry Styles and disco king John Travolta, you may feel you’ve already been bitten on the neck. The androgynous count, slithering around the stage, holds you in his riveting gaze, when you’re not laughing out loud at the antics of the rest of the cast.

Reincarnated by Andrew Munro, who seems to live the role of the suave vampire, he glides along with the posture of a principal danseur, assessing the necks of his future blood donors while other characters pretend he’s just another ghoul.

In the recent Bigger Dreams Productions “Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors” by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, the rest of the talented cast cavort through a mashed-up version of Bram Stoker’s novel, Bela Lugosi’s “Dracula,” and Charles Ludlam’s “Irma Vep.” Along the way, the soundtrack channels film history. Fragments of themes from “The Exorcist,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” and “The Mummy (Swan Lake)” cue the audience to danger—or silliness, when you hear the theme from “Scooby-Doo.” When someone screams with pleasure, another voice says, “I’ll have what she’s having,” evoking the famous line from “When Harry Met Sally.”

Plot is beside the point; action is everything. Humor catches you unaware when germaphobe Los Angeles realtor Jonathan Harker (Casey Thomas) and carriage driver (Gina Pryer) mime a ridiculously bumpy carriage ride. While bobbing about like ships in a tornado, Harker, who looks sicker as the ride progresses, pirouettes over the back of the rig to spew and bounces back again in one fluid motion. Another bit in the carriage comes later as the former milquetoast Harker, now a sexy vampire, ravages his delighted fiancée Lucy (Gina Pryer) under a blanket. The noisy mating is covered by the other passengers singing “God Save the Queen” as the lovers couple furiously, the blanket erupting like Vesuvius.

A standout subplot involves the male characters physically rejecting the pretty Mina (Brooke Tallman) as an ugly drudge. Treating rejection as a privilege, she vamps around the stage in an emerald gown, primping her head of massive red curls. When she finally snags the male gaze, it’s bad news. The Count notices her neck is almost as good as the unavailable Lucy’s and bites her into a coma. Blood drips from Dracula’s smile as his wicked grin signals his siring of a new vampire.

It takes the newly arrived femme fatale Dr. Van Helsing (Brooke Tallmann again) to point out to the dunder-headed group that Count Dracula is a vampire. They go after the count on goggle-eyed hobby horses, galloping across the moors, one step behind Dracula.

Threaded through the action, rubber bats fly around biting everyone as the characters try to figure out what’s wrong. A party guest (Angela Cobb) dances by with a blow-up doll or two, attracting the attention of no one. The hilarious servant Renfield (Steve Dillon) runs about giggling and eating bugs like the madman he is. With a flip of his fright wig, Renfield becomes the psychiatrist Dr. Westfeldt (Steve Dillon again) who uses his patients as household staff. At one point, Dillon morphs from Renfield to Westfeldt and back again in a tour-de-force of split-second timing, creating a conversation between his two characters.

When the characters finally find Dracula, you know the end is near. Someone calls for a stake to put through Dracula’s heart, and you’re not surprised when a sirloin appears. Primed for silliness by the rest of the hurly-burly, you laugh anyway.

Florence McDermott is the editor of the Rotary Club of Cooperstown’s newsletter, “The Oil Can.”