Dracula

Every few years, the New York stage gets a transfusion of vampire blood and we are inundated with the undead. Sometimes this trend can result in a spate of vital chillers, such as the 1977 hit revival of Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's original stage adaptation of "Dracula," starring Frank Langella in a sexy new interpretation of the count, followed by an Off-Broadway version called "The Passion of Dracula," which also enjoyed a long run. But in more recent years we've been subjected to such bat bombs as the musicals "Dance of the Vampires," "Lestat," and a particularly awful adaptation of "Dracula."

The popularity of the "Twilight" books and movies and the "True Blood" TV series is probably the inspiration for the latest vampire invasion of our boards, yet another remounting of the Deane-Balderston exhumation, this time starring Italian heartthrob Michel Altieri as the bloodthirsty antihero and Tony winner George Hearn as his nemesis, the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing. Neither as erotically exciting as the Langella version nor as epically terrible as the trio of aforementioned fang-toothed tuners, this anemic "Dracula" suffers from a low blood count (pun intended).

Directed with a total lack of suspense by Paul Alexander, the production is more likely to induce sleeping sickness than the thrill of fear. The pace is molasses slow, and you could drive the proverbial truck between the pauses. That may work for a Pinter play, but not for a tense melodrama.

Hoping to cash in on the whole supernatural-hunk craze, the producers have cast Altieri, who sports a Fabio-length hairdo and speaks with such a thick accent that it's difficult to understand him at times. The Continental star is easy on the eyes, particularly when he rips off his shirt in order for Lucy, his chief victim, to feast on his ample pecs, but he comes across as more of a pouty supermodel than a charismatic creature of the night. In addition, there is no chemistry between him and Lucy, wanly played by Emily Bridges, who took over the role late in rehearsals. The ineptly staged erotic dance between the two is a study in awkwardness.

Veterans Timothy Jerome, as Lucy's concerned father, and Hearn do their best to inject fresh blood into this corpse, but nothing short of a miracle can save it. The remainder of the cast either woefully underplays (Jake Silbermann is tepid as Jonathan Harker) or goes way over the top (Katharine Luckinbill and Rob O'Hare, as musical-comedy cockney servants, and John Buffalo Mailer, who plays the demented Renfield with a Foghorn Leghorn Southern accent). Just about everything is wrong, from Dana Kenn's tacky revolving set to the choice of music—"Moonlight Sonata" and "Swan Lake"—that sounds more stately than terrifying.

For the original 1927 Broadway production, nurses were hired to tend to faint-of-heart theatergoers. There's no need of them here, unless the patrons collapse from boredom.



Presented by Bram Stoker's Dracula LLC, Tony Travis, George and Donna Shipley, Leslie Evers, Ed Bankole, Megan Barnett, Carolyn Bechtel, and Michael Alden, in association with John Manley, Barry Moss, and Bob Kale, at the Little Shubert Theatre, 422 W. 42nd St., NYC. Opened Jan. 5 for an open run. Tue.–Thu., Sun., 7 p.m.; Fri.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 2:30 p.m. (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250, or www.telecharge.com. Casting by MKA Casting.