Christoph David Cording and Noa Adams in Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Cyclopedic Ensemble)
If you’re looking for a serious, reverent stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the production currently on stage at the Arts Asylum is not what you’re after. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is, as the name suggests, an over-the-top farcical take on the classic story. The comedy is broad and the jokes largely come in quantity over quality, but no one can say this show doesn’t commit to being a goofy, campy vampire party.
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors premiered Off-Broadway last year and is now having its Kansas City debut courtesy of Cyclopedic Ensemble, directed by Eric Yazell. Playwrights Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen have taken a handful of Stoker’s characters and loose basic plot and presented them in the manner of The Rocky Horror Show—both in terms of style and substance, with fourth-wall-breaking shout-outs and a pansexual, shirtless Dracula (Christoph David Cording) clad in leather pants whose primary goal is to seduce (and, sure, also to bite) both parts of the show’s lead couple, Harker (Dustin J. Reckling) and Lucy (Noa Adams).
The jokes here are rapid fire and there are lots of genuine laughs, though many groans as well. Nearly every actor in the ensemble plays multiple characters and the nonstop quick changes, along with some deft bits of physical comedy and clever props keep a lively energy driving forward. (Nat Weber is a standout delight in the dual roles of Lucy’s sister Mina and a gender-bent Dr. Van Helsing, and Joshua Gleeson is especially impressive and consistently hilarious in the role(s) of “Everybody Else!”) Still, even at a brief 90 minutes, the script manages to drag for quite a bit of the second half. There are long stretches where Greenberg and Rosen seem to have forgotten the basic concept of their show and put humor on the backburner, and others where the gags simply go on far too long.
Nonetheless, Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is a paragon of “turn your brain off” entertainment. It’s 90 minutes of irreverent comedy, sexual innuendoes, and (deliberately) bad accents, and not much more—but sometimes that’s perfectly enough.
“Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” a production of Cyclopedic Ensemble, runs through November 9 at the Arts Asylum, 824 E. Meyer Blvd. For more information, visit kcdraculacomedy.com.
