By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO— As October sneaks up on us, you may notice the streets are becoming adorned with the macabre and the shows getting spookier and spookier. Not to be left out of the fun, the newest show at The Old Globe is Dracula, but this is unlike any Dracula you may have seen before, for this one is “a comedy of terrors.”
Well, actually I don’t know about terrors so much but it sure was a comedy — a farce really. Warning, use the restroom before you settle in for this 90-min no intermission play. The laugh-per-minute ratio is high and if you have a full bladder, you will be sorry. Hmmm maybe that’s the terror part…
This campy rendition written by Jewish playwrights Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, they never miss an opportunity for a cheap joke, and it totally works. In the introduction to the show, the actors come out wearing period dress from the 19th century and warn the audience that it’s going to be scary with bright flashes, smoke, and shirtless hot men “you’re welcome Hillcrest” one of the actors calls out to the cheering audience. And that pretty much sets the tone for everything else.
To catch you up on the story real quick, real estate agent Jonathan Harker (Brady Dalton Richards) goes to Transylvania to sell some houses to Count Dracula (George Krissa). Upon showing the count a photo of his fiancée Lucy (Gizel Jimenez), the count falls in love with her and decides to move to London where she lives in an asylum run by her father (Linda Mugleston) and her less attractive sister (Drew Droege). Chaos ensues.
The main couple of Jonathan and Lucy is played relatively straightly, while Droege and Mugleston cross-dress and change roles and costumes very quickly. Mugleston in particular changes characters and costumes so quickly it’s dizzying.
Being that it’s staged in the theater-in-the-round, director Gordon Greenberg and Scenic Designer Tijuana Bjelajac have to tread carefully. Using minimal props and leaving most of the heavy lifting to the incredibly talented actors, they manage to tell the story and take us to four locations by dropping small models from the ceiling to let us know where we are.
The show may not be for children as there’s a lot of innuendo and even outright bawdiness. But for the adults in the crowd, each punchline hits. And there’s a smattering of Jewish humor in there for those paying attention, a bissel of Yiddish, and many corny puns.
The play runs through Sunday, Nov. 3.
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Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.