STAGE WEST: "Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors" at the Old Globe

George Krissa (left) and Brady Dalton Richards in "Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors."     Photo by Jim Cox

            Of the three shows by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen that have been produced at the Old Globe, “Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors" is by far the funniest. Like “Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show” and “Crime and Punishment, A Comedy” this one is drawn from a famous work of literature. In this case it’s Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel “Dracula.” Greenberg, who directs, and Rosen send up the Count and the entire vampire genre – alas, it’s become a genre – with madcap ingenuity that could only play out in the Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.
            What stands out for me with Greenberg’s and Rosen’s “Dracula” are the golden opportunities for the quick-changing, fast-moving little cast to demonstrate physical comedy at its bloody finest. Yes, the script is sharp and cleverly contemporary at times, rife with sexual innuendoes that would gladden fans of “True Blood” and double entendres enough to fill two 90-minute plays. You have to have game actors to make it all work.
            Greenberg and Rosen have them.
            At the forefront is Drew Droege, whose double duty (each time dressed as woman) as man-hungry Mina Westfeldt and vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing soars over the top, but why not? Droege comically rules the stage.
            A charismatic Drac is a requirement, of course, and George Krissa carries the day as a dashing Transylvanian Count in black leather pants, flexing his muscles, suggestively stalking his prey and at the climax of the story actually making Dracula a semi-sympathetic character. We don’t want him staked to death.
            Brady Dalton Richards’ Jonathan Harker is a proper English solicitor at first, the timid half of a romance with gutsy and beautiful Lucy Westfeldt (Gizel Jimenez). Bitten by the Count later in the going, he becomes something entirely different (and much more to Lucy’s liking).
            Like all of the others except for Krissa playing multiple characters, Linda Mugleston alternates with audience-pleasing alacrity between Lucy and Mina’s stuffy dad Dr. Westfeldt and the lunatic Renfield who as in the novel becomes Dracula’s raving foot soldier.
            As usual, the White Theatre proves versatile when it comes to staging a wild comedy. Here it can be neon disco one minute, haunted castle the next, all without utilizing bulky or intrusive props. The inventive cast under Greenberg’s direction believably and quite hilariously simulates rides in horse-drawn carriages, exhausting descents down castle steps, frantic flights from flitting bats and peeks inside coffins in search of Drac.
            Greenberg and Rosen have taken narrative liberties with Stoker’s novel, reimagining some of the characters and shifting gender with a couple. But within their spoof is a healthy respect for the motif and legend that Stoker created. Laughs are more integral than frights to their “Dracula,” but remember – it is titled “A Comedy of Terrors.”
            “Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors” runs through Nov. 3 at the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.