Dracula

By: Darryl Reilly

“I didn’t hear you come in.” “I have very light footsteps” incites a gale of audience laughter during this faithful, occasionally eerie, and often lighthearted revival of the 1927 stage version of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula written by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. It is presented by the Out of the Box Theatre Company which was founded in 2006; its mission is “To feature working professionals at their peak and in their prime: seasoned actors, directors and designers primarily past 50 years of age.”

Director Jeffery V. Thompson’s witty and knowing adaptation maintains the characters, structure, and time but shifts the action from England to Long Island. Instead of an evnetful ocean voyage, Dracula has flown in a plane with his six crates of native Transylvanian soil to Roosevelt Field. The gender and race of several figures have been altered; the spider-eating Renfield is a woman, and Professor Van Helsing is from Curaçao instead of Holland. These cheeky alterations lead to merriment. Mr. Thompson’s fresh take on this classic is joyously realized.

Thompson’s vigorous and well-paced physical staging is most thrilling in the finale. “A rat just ran by!” cries an actor. The auditorium serves as Dracula’s subterranean lair, the vampire hunters move through the audience in darkness, candelabras and a chandelier are on display as the crucial coffin is found. This sequence is marked by superior stagecraft. At the performance under review the production was efficiently overseen by stage manager Crystal Ramirez-Neil.

Flapping bat wings, howling wolves, and vicious barking dogs are wild elements of Nick Wilson’s soaring sound design. Mr. Wilson’s cool original horror movie-style music is grandly retro. Lighting designer Stephen Cornelius’ artful hues range from ominous dimness to fiery crimson. Harlan D. Penn’s clever scenic design of simple white furnishings combined with atmospheric pieces strongly connotes Dr. Seward’s sanitarium’s library, a bedroom, and the Count’s shadowy sanctum. Costume designer Katherine Roberson’s glorious period-style garments authentically visualize each character.

Lithely sauntering around in that black cape with its red lining over formalwear, the gray-haired, goateed, and jovial Grant Machan offers a wonderfully droll turn as Dracula with his melodious voice. Mr. Machan does inspire chills when he is about to bite a young woman on the neck in bed, he famously lifts his cape to camouflage this assault. “I wish I were present to greet you when you visited my home” gets another big laugh due to context and Machan’s wry delivery.

Charismatic Alvin Keith purposefully veers from solemn to emotive for his rousing Van Helsing portrayal. Dashing David Winning is smoothly authoritative as Dr. Seward while being emotionally protective of his in-jeopardy daughter. Sunny Andrea Galatà is charmingly heroic as the romantic Jonathan Harker. Alluring Chiara De Caroli’s pleasing Italian accent adds further appeal to her engaging characterization of the imperiled Lucy Seward.

Dressed in a man’s suit and with her wild hair, wiry Madeline McCray is an antic whirlwind as Renfield while also fiercely conveying terror at times. In uproarious battle axe mode as the sanatorium’s chief orderly is the physically imposing and riotous Sheila Dehner with her swaggering and ratatat vocal delivery. Animated and petite Mary Sheridan is hilarious as a feisty maid and creepy as a silent roaming vampire shrouded in white.

This jaunty incarnation of Dracula is a wicked entertainment in time for Halloween.

Dracula (October 15-18, 2026)
Out of the Box Theatre Company
Bernie Wohl Center, 647 Columbus Avenue, in Manhattan
For tickets, visit www.outoftheboxtheatre.com
Running time: two hours including one intermission