Dracula in New Jersey

[perfectliar]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 9:41pm

Did anyone make the journey out to New Jersey this past weekend to see the opening of the new version of Wildhorn's Dracula? Opinions, thoughts, reviews?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 9:44pm

Who is doing it?

[perfectliar]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 9:49pm

Cheng/Ferrara Productions

It's being staged at the theatre of a community college in West Windsor.

www.chengferrara.org

[wildhornfan2]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 10:48pm

I saw it yesterday. Frank Wildhorn was in attendance and led a master class afterwards. The show itself has apparently undergone significant changes since it closed on Broadway and the new version hopefully will be licensed so other theaters can do it (Frank said so himself after the show).

The cast was very good in my opinion. According to my program, David Weitzer played Dracula, Michaela Tomcho played Mina and Charlene Angelini played Lucy. I am thinking about going back this weekend to catch it again (easy for me because I live nearby).

[temms]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 10:52pm

I'm not planning on seeing it, but a musical called "Dracula In New Jersey" would be pretty awesome. He could stalk stranded motorists on the turnpike, vacationers in Atlantic City, mall kids from Passaic. That I'd go see.

[SahDu]

Posted: 10/23/06 at 11:12pm

[Quote] I'm not planning on seeing it, but a musical called "Dracula In New Jersey" would be pretty awesome. He could stalk stranded motorists on the turnpike, vacationers in Atlantic City, mall kids from Passaic. That I'd go see. [/Quote]

That made me laugh outloud.


Updated On: 2/15/14 at 11:12 PM

[wildhornfan2]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 10:31am

LOL


Updated On: 10/30/06 at 10:31 AM

[wildhornfan2]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 12:55pm

Songs from the show!

http://www.davidweitzer.com/multimedia.html

[Lori2]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 1:13pm

I'm not planning on seeing it, but a musical called "Dracula In New Jersey" would be pretty awesome. He could stalk stranded motorists on the turnpike, vacationers in Atlantic City, mall kids from Passaic. That I'd go see.

LOL I'm from Jersey, but that is pretty funny LOL! haha

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 7:21pm

Dracula Goes To Lodi

If he tried Newark, he would not last a night

Updated On: 10/30/06 at 07:21 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 7:29pm

So I guess they put AT LAST into the show.

I wonder if it still includes MODERN WORLD and HOW DO YOU CHOOSE?...

ETA: Michaela Tomcho sounds terrible in these clips as Mina. Updated On: 10/30/06 at 07:29 PM

[GreenFinch2]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 7:45pm

I saw it on Saturday ... it didn't impress me ... all the music seemed to sound the same and, IMHO the female leads were a bit of a let down compared to the men. The people who sat next to me actually left during intermission. All in all, though, it was nice to get out for the evening and I have gone to that theatre since I was little so it was enjoyable to go back, even if the performance wasn't that great.

oh, and for BSoBW2: "How to you choose?" was in the show ... I'm not sure about "Modern World" - the title doesn't sound familiar and I haven't my program with me. Sorry!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 8:05pm

yes, I too would be interested in seeing a song list for what is apparently on its way to becoming the licensed version of the show. I just hope they solve more problems then they create. the book still needed major work after the revisions made for Broadway. it was better in La Jolla.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 8:25pm

MODERN WORLD was the song that had a much better chorus and had one of the worst rhymes about women getting to vote (Mina sang it).

The song was done on the docks, around A PERFECT LIFE.

[All_For_Laura]

Posted: 10/30/06 at 8:57pm

I saw it this past Friday! Great cast! Yeah David! Awesome as always! Anyway, go see it if you can! Halloween Performance tomorrow night! Def worth it!

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 12:28am

More phony crap to turn an audience's stomach. Put a stake through its heart and be done with it.






Holden Caulfield
New York City

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 2:25am

In your opinion of course

Count Nosferatu,
New York City (escaped from Carpathian mountains...)

[wildhornfan2]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 9:34am

Here's the song list from the NJ version of the show:

ACT ONE

Prologue/Jonathan's Arrival - Jonathan
Solitary Man - Dracula
Whitbay Bay - Mina and Jonathan
Forever Young - Vampire Girls
Fresh Blood - Dracula
The Master's Song - Renfield
How Do You Choose? - Mina, Lucy and Suitors
The Mist - Lucy and Mina
A Perfect Life/Loving You Keeps Me Alive - Mina and Jonathan
Weddings - Mina, Lucy, Arthur and Congregation
The Invitation - Lucy
Nosferatu - Van Helsing
Man of Woman Born - Mourners
Life After Life - Dracula and Lucy

ACT TWO

Undead One - Van Helsing
Please Don't Make Me Love You - Mina
The Master's Song (Reprise) - Renfield and Dracula
The Heart Is Slow To Learn - Mina
Mina's Seduction - Dracula and Mina
Deep In The Darkest Night - Van Helsing, Quincey, Arthur, Jack, Jonathan and Mina
Train Sequence, Pt. 1 - Van Helsing
Before The Summer Ends - Jonathan
Train Sequence, Pt. 2 - Dracula and Mina
The Longer I Live - Dracula
At Last - Mina and Dracula
Finale - Mina and Dracula

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 10/31/06 at 8:30pm

Thanks for this :)

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 1:04am

"Man of Woman Born" is and or was called at one point "Prayer for the Dead" and "Undead One" was called "Van Helsing's Proposal". I'm glad to see that "The Invitation" and "Nosferatu" are back in, but that's about it. I was hoping they would see their errors with the Broadway incarnation and revert back to some more of the La Jolla material. "A Quiet Life", "One More Lonely Night" and "First Taste" in particular. They're just lyrically much stronger in my opinion.

I would be interested in knowing how they set up "Please Don't Make Me Love You" scene and story wise as it hasn't been used in the American productions prior to this. So far "The Heart is Slow to Learn" has always been Mina's first song in the second act.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 1:19am

"MAN OF WOMAN BORN" and "UNDEAD ONE" were both in the Broadway production, without titles in the Playbill.

PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME LOVE YOU was in the Broadway show, not as a full song, during, I think, Mina's Seduction or during IF I COULD FLY. It is a beautiful song, in my opinion, and always made sense being sung to Dracula. I wonder how they worked it now.

In the Broadway production, after they stake Lucy, the scenery changes around Mina, as she sings THE HEART IS SLOW TO LEARN, and Quincey paints her.

NOSFERATU should never have been taken out of the show. Stupid move. Although, Stephen McKinley Henderson (who I think is a fabulous judge on L&O) would have butchered that song.

Tom Hewitt said MODERN WORLD was his favorite song. I wish they kept in the chorus. Afterall, one of the big themesof the book was the changing in technology.

The original A QUIET LIFE was great. I don't mind SOLITARY MAN, though. FIRST TASTE is also better than FOREVER YOUNG, whose chorus could be kept in during FRESH BLOOD.

And, yeah, ONE MORE LONELY NIGHT blows OVER WHITBY BAY out of the...bay (sorry!).

LOVING YOU KEEPS ME ALIVE was recorded by James Barbour as Dracula, I believe. Seems to make more sense as a Harker song.

Are the musical bits with Dracula after OVER WHITBY BAY and in a few other places still in?

I also wish they'd expand Harker's Arrival.

Did they take out Harker's song as he runs through the castle (another unnamed song in the PLaybill - about the locked doors).

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 1:52am

Oh, just realized:

La Jolla ended with them killing Lucy, no?

On Broadway (and it seems in NJ) they begin Act II with killing Lucy, which was basically La Jolla's VAN HELSING'S PROPOSAL.

It seems the trap is the show works better, dramatically, to kill Lucy completely at the end of ACT ONE, but then they couldn't use LIFE AFTER LIFE...unless they made it more of a duet between Lucy and Dracula and ended with a scene change into Lucy's grave...but they'd have to reorchestrate it...Nah, it wouldn't work.


I wonder what became of RISKS WORTH TAKING?

And Dracula's musical bits are called THERE IS LOVE.

Don't really like AT LAST. Way too cliche. I like the Broadway's ending.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 2:25am

The original "A Quiet Life" just set the tone of the show sooo much better. The only problem is that between La Jolla and Broadway the tone became way more pop and "Solitary Man" obviously then set the new tone for the evening. To me it just depends on which tone the director or composer wants to set for the show.

La Jolla did end the first act with Lucy's head being pulled up out of her coffin. It worked much better dramatically and "shock factor" wise to close the first act on a high, so to speak, which they did with a reprise of "Prayer for the Dead". I believe it would be entirely possible to work in "Life After Life" as a sort of prelude to Lucy's death and still have her death finish off the act.

and I too wonder what happened with "Risks Worth Taking". I don't remember it much, but I also don't remember not liking it. I would also like to find the lyrics for "There Is A Love" as I don't recall it being the same as the lyrics for what has come to be called "The Mist" reprise or "You Already Love Me", but maybe it was the same song and I just don't remember.

I don't enjoy "Loving You Keeps Me Alive" being sung by Dracula and would like more information on how it's done being combined with "A Perfect Life" and sung by Jonathan and Mina.

"At Last" also gets on my nerves, because as you said, it is very cliche and really does nothing but postpone the finale which would be better suited to be set up with either "Please Don't Make Me Love You" or a reprise of "The Heart is Slow to Learn" as it was in La Jolla.

[All_For_Laura]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 7:05am

I loved the placement and direction of "Please Don't Make Me Love You". It worked really nicely and was sung gorgeously!

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 11/1/06 at 11:48am

"The original "A Quiet Life" just set the tone of the show sooo much better."

Agreed.

The Broadway show ended with THERE'S ALWAYS A TOMORROW and PlEASE DON'T MAKE ME LOVE YOU and some other things.

THERE IS LOVE is different from THE MIST. If was a full version of Dracula's bit. (Broadway had just the first verse, with some lyrical changes.)

The one is fallen, already a lost soul
Bringing me towards the other, my ultimate goal
Her blood rejuvenates, resuscitates,
My fierce desire to exist.
I’ll swallow them up in the mist

And as for Mina,
There’s something different there
Could it be the strong resistance
Her virtuous stare
Perhaps she holds the key, she troubles me
Could be that I should resist
And keep her untouched by the mist.

which was sung just after The Mist, after Dracula sees Mina, and before the ONE MORE LONELY NIGHT (REPRISE)/WEDDING SONG.

Updated On: 11/1/06 at 11:48 AM