Review: DRACULA: THE BLOODY TRUTH at Great Lakes Theater

It’s that time of year--pumpkins, costumes, trick and treat, horror movies and zombies.  
 
It is, therefore, only proper that area live theatres schedule appropriate shows.  Cleveland Play House will shortly open FRANKENSTEIN and Great Lakes Theater just raised the curtain on DRACULA: THE BLOODY TRUTH.
 
Dracula was the story that kickstarted the public’s interest in vampires.  
 
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) is credited with giving us the quintessential vampire story.  It wasn’t, however, the first of that genre. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem The Bride of Corinth (1797) was an early take on vampire literature, and later Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1871) added to the myth.  The gentleman vampire, which is the image that most have of the character, based on the movie and theatre versions, was the contribution of John Polidori with his The Vampyre (1817).
 
The throat-biting, blood thirsty mythical creature, is “one of the most adapted characters in the world, second only to Sherlock Holmes, with over 200 films featuring the character.  
 
Great stars have played the infamous Count, including Lon Chaney Jr., Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman. The character has also been ripe for parody, like in the 1995 Mel Brooks film Dracula: Dead and Loving It, starring Leslie Nielsen, and Roman Polanski’s 1967 film, The Fearless Vampire Killers.”
 
Chaney, it is purported, played the role at the Hanna Theatre, the home of Great Lakes Theater, in a live theatrical play version of the legend.  (Though this, like Dracula, himself, is subject to speculation.)
 
Farce is front and center in Le Navet Bete and John Nicholson’s DRACULA: THE BLOODY TRUTH.

The script’s premise is that we are hearing the “real” Dracula story, not some “alternative facts” and “fake news” version.  (Yea, sure!)
 
To get the “facts” straight, the audience will take a journey across Europe from the dark and sinister Transylvanian mountains to the charming seaside town of Whitby, guided by the fictional Professor Van Heising.  
 
This will be accomplished by observing Van Heising, portrayed by Lynn Robert Berg (who also will be seen as Bride 1, Quincey Morris, a Peasant, a Train Conductor, a Bloke, a Box Man and a Paper boy) and three actors (Jeffrey C. Hawkins, Jodi Dominick and Joe Wegner) who stage a “factual” theatrical production of the bloody events of the life and deeds of (…drum roll…) Dracula.  
 
It allows Berg and company, at breakneck speed to (…I can’t resist…) sink their teeth into over 40 roles!

Billed as “a wild, zany, (almost) authentic adaptation that provides a spooktacular evening [or afternoon] full of campy horror fun,” the script is seemingly a dream assignment for Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee.  

Fee is the local king of farce.  There is no schtick, gimmick, double-take, door slam, tripping over one’s own feet, that the man doesn’t love.  It’s a wonder that following his oft-presented curtain speeches, he doesn’t do a pratfall off the stage.

A Broadway World review of another theater’s production of the script called it “a side-splittingly funny show that was the best comedy I've seen this year.”
 
I wish I could say that about the GLT production.  Maybe it was because I saw a matinee performance, or the cast was still recovering from the previous night’s opening night celebration, but the staging I saw was flat.  It didn’t move at the expected break-neck speed.  Lots of the gimmicks didn’t work.  The timing was off.  
 
It wasn’t that the show wasn’t funny…much of the second act was…it was that in farce the audience is to laugh at gags and gimmicks that come naturally from the lines and instances, not from devised ridiculousness.  There was too much of a “you are supposed to laugh at this stuff” . . .  a begging for laughs and humor that was too pat…not spontaneous.
 
The cast worked hard, the stagehands did their part with great enthusiasm, but all in all DRACULA: THE BLOODY TRUTH just didn’t live up to expectations.  The number of people who left at intermission show-cased this, as did the traditional Cleveland “required” standing ovation at the end, which only included about a third of the audience.
 
Capsule judgment:  Many will find DRACULA: THE BLOODY TRUTH to be a laugh riot, others will wonder why their seatmates were reacting, while they aren’t.  I, unfortunately, was in the latter group.  Too bad, for with all the angst in the world, I was hoping for two-hours, with intermission, of humorous escape.  Oh, well . . .
 
DRACULA: THE BLOODY TRUTH runs through November 5, 2023 at the Hanna Theatre, the home of the Great Lakes Theater.  For tickets https://www.greatlakestheater.org/ or call (216) 241-6000

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