Wolf's uber-late, and thus brief, Dracula review

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 4:21pm

I posted this on another thread, but I want to hear if any of the folks who saw it when it opened agree with me.

I FINALLY saw Dracula this week and it's not NEARLY as bad as everyone led me to believe. I think it came to Broadway prematurely though. The script is one of the worst I've heard in a long time. Several of the lines were said almost as if they were apologizing to the audience as they were saying them. They knew the lines were bad. On the other hand, I think on the whole the music is quite good. Not as good as J & H or Pimpernel, but still pretty good. I'd say Life after Life is as good as Into the Fire if not quite as good as This is the Moment. But the three main performers I thought did admirably with Tom Hewitt and Kelli O'Hara giving the best all around performances. (And at the risk of being vulgar, Kelli has a fantastic figure and looks breathtaking in her nude scene) I thought Melissa Errico was great in the more emotional scenes, but in the scenes where she just had to "be" Mina, she seemed like she was phoning it in a bit. Like she didn't want to be there. Nice voice though and very nice to look at. But the book is simply inexcusable. Horrid, atrocious lines that are "almost" funny when they are needed to be hilarious tension-breakers. But just like the B'Way production of J&H, the show couldn't decide if it wanted to be campy, melodrama, or simply dramatic. Wildhorn writes pretty good music with J & H being pretty great, IMO. He DESPERATELY needs to find a great book writer to work with him. THEN, he will write the great piece of musical theatre he has been on the cusp of for so long.
- Wolf

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 9:35pm

Wolf, I enjoyed reading your review very much. Thank you!

[rclocalz]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 10:37pm

very nice review and well put. I honestly hope that other composers are scared away from writing another "Dracula" musical, because it could be some good stuff with thrilling music and a well thought out book. Maybe they'll fix the book in a revival of Wildhorn's "Dracula" forty years from now and become a huge hit!

[grownupgroupie]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 10:44pm

I agree, Wolf. The book pretty much sucked, but there's some great music in the score, the effects are insane, and Kelly O'Hara is amazing.

Although with three years between La Jolla and Broadway, you'd think they'd have cleaned up the book by now--I guess it's hard to condense Stoker's novel into two and a half hours.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 4:54am

Am I the only one that doesn't find ANYONE in Dracula amazing? People go on and on about Kelly O'Hara - yes, she's good and has the talent to be on broadway but there's nothing extraordinary about her. I enjoyed reading the review as well - I didn't even attempt to write one it would have just given me a headache. I hate it that much.