Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors, opened Friday night, October 3rd at Chapin Theatre Company and grabbed the audience by their throats, tickling their collective funny bones, sucking every laugh possible from the applauding fans. In the slapstick, standup comedy tradition of Mel Brooks and Monty Python, this silly spoof of Bram Stoker's classic 1897 vampire novel is dazzlingly acted out by five of the most versatile actors Columbia theatre has to offer. Four playing a brew of manic, murderous multitude of roles, not unlike last Chapin Theatre season's role-switching The 39 Steps where the starring lead male then was none other than this show's fang-tastic director, George Dinsmore.
This 90-minute blood-thirsty play offers these actors—Debra Kiser, David Fichter, Frank Thompson, Katie Mixon and Josh Kern—the challenge of a theatrical lifetime, throwing puns, punchlines, and naughty innuendos against the ever-changing castle walls amid the nimble narrative, with lightning quick costume changes (some hilariously done on stage) and with a plethora of accents! The big character role winners by a Transylvanian mile are Fichter and Kiser, blending proper British and German accents along with a variety of other dizzy dialects and personalities making for a madcap cocktail of fun. But let's toss kudos of garlic-laced funeral wreaths to the entire cast of this bawdy farce.
David Fichter is a dead-on hoot playing the misogynistic Dr Westfeldt, who begins as the arch-nemesis of Kiser's strict, straightlaced German Van Helsing. But their second act reactions take a decided turn for the better. Fichter's loony, bug-eating, straight-jacketed Renfield almost steals the night's spotlight from Kiser's redhead coiffed Mina, a desperate date-deprived spinster in need of some serious orthodontal intervention. Fichter also manages to step into the role of a salty Sea Captain with both actors early on, becoming ferocious howling wolves along with Mixon.
Mixon is the epitome of the courageous but romantically confused heroine, Lucy Westfeldt, hitting every nuanced note and her role switch to the kleptomaniac mental nurse, Kitty, is a delicious surprise. Mixon also plays a rowdy carriage driver in the opening scene. Master comedian, Frank Thompson plays the night's straight man in the role of the cowardly real estate agent, Jonathan, and in one scene (with a bow to Sesame Street) plays three characters at once in the guises of the Scottish Lord Cavendish, the very British Worthington, and the Texan, Lord Havemercy. Thompson also easily polished off the double roles of a scurvy Bosun and a drunken Gravedigger.
But with all the night's multiple role switching, is the leading actor short-changed playing only a single role? Hardly. Josh Kern in the sexy buff role of Dracula proves a deadly, charming centerfold and an equal opportunity romancer of both Lucy and even her intended, Jonathan Harker. As Harker, Thompson enjoys a late act romantic renovation after his rendezvous with Kern which proves to be a neck-biter twist. Earlier this season, Kern perfectly played the comic lead of Paul in Barefoot in the Park, so here, his sly, narcissistic, revisited take on this horror icon shows his considerable versatility on the Chapin stage in two radically different performances in one season. Bravo!
Special honors goes to Dracula Producers, Jim DeFelice and Tiffany Dinsmore for bringing this comedy gem to their Chapin stage. The beautiful, facile set, sound, costume, props, and dramatic projection designs are ambitious, but all laser quick transitions came off with nary a hitch on opening night.
Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors
Adapted by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen plays for two more weekends
October 3, 4, 9-10-11 and 16-17-18 at 7:30 pm evening performances with
October 12 and 19 on Sunday 3:00 pm matinees.
Chapin Theatre Company is located at 830 Columbia Avenue, Chapin 29036
For tickets: chapintheatre.org [803] 240-8544