It’s hard to believe that Bram Stoker’s novel, “Dracula,” was written in 1897! This classic has been made into four different films over the years and manifested itself in other genres. Now, Bristol Riverside Theatre is bringing to its stage a new version (Off-Broadway debut in 2023) of this tale of vampire fiction, a funny version with outrageous humor and crazy characters. It’s titled “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.” In fact, there is very little terror at all.
Jonathan Harker (William Bednar), a fast-talking solicitor, goes to Transylvania to see his client, Dracula (Davey Miller), who wants to move to England. Aided by Harker, he arrives in a town with a variety of odd characters. And Dracula wants to possess them all in his own way.
Four actors portray more than a dozen characters in this gender bending farce. Mina (Danny Vaccaro) is a sex-starved daughter of Dr. Wallace Westfield (Brenny Campbell). She lusts after Dracula who toys with her. Her younger sister Lucy (Laura Cable) is engaged to Harker and rejects Dracula at first, but he keeps trying to seduce her. Dr. Wallace Westfield (Brenny Campbell), father of Lucy and Mina, is played by a woman, and ironically, he is a male chauvinist who has no respect for women doctors. He will summon a vampire hunter eventually to deal with Dracula.
My favorites in the play were Danny Vaccaro, who plays both Mina and the woman doctor/vampire expert and Miller as Dracula. Vaccaro is both farcical and real. And I can’t say enough about Miller- sexy, strong, determined, and a most modern vampire. When he was on stage, I felt engaged, which I didn’t feel for much of the show. And it was not because of the acting- the small ensemble was very good.
The play itself by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, a farcical version of the classical story is quite silly- tons of jokes. Some of them are funny, but many are not. And although the play is only 90 minutes long, it felt like it was longer. The costumes were great, but I could find no name in the program to give credit.
Comedy is a very personal thing and what one finds funny, another does night. It was not my style of humor and I didn’t laugh often. I noticed that lots of people in the audience wore sober expressions like mine.
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen at Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe St., Bristol, PA 19007, 215-785-0100, brstage.org, thru October 25, 2026
