User:RL0919/Dracula

Notes

From Scivally

Between 1928 and 1977

• Hurd Hatfield in Chicago in 1971
• Nantucket production with Edward Gorey sets in 1973, starring Lloyd Battista

1977 revivial

• Langella approached about role in Nov 1976, accepted in Jan 1977.
• Boston tryouts in early October, then previews starting 11 Oct
• Praise for Gorey's sets and Langella's non-campy performance
• Sold out first two weeks
• Merchandising included Gorey wallpaper and a toy version of the set
• NY competitors included The Passion of Dracula, Dracula, A Modern Fable, and Count Dracula
• $300K investment turned $2M profit.
• Revival spurred many other Dracula and vampire plays, and a Frankenstein play.
• Langella until October 1978, then Raul Julia through 17 June 1979, then Jean LeClerc until closing

From Wynne

• Deane had to submit play to Lord Chamberlain's office for a license. It was approved 15 May 1924 after being censored. (169) The censorship reduced the violence, such as having Dracula break one pane of glass rather than knocking out an entire window, and not showing Dracula's death. (170-171)
• Original opens with Lucy already dead; Mina is ill. Dracula is staying with the Harkers. Includes Morris and Godalming characters. (169)
• Deane makes Dracula handsome and sophisticated, unlike the "repulsive figure" in the novel. (170)
• Renfield is killed by Dracula in original (171)
• Dora Mary Patrick, who played Mina, was Deane's wife. (172)
• Transfers to Prince of Wales and Duke of York theatres (172)
• Publicity stunt of hiring a nurse to attend to frightened patrons (172)
• Balderston rewrite is "a tighter script"; has fewer characters. Lucy becomes main female character and is Seward's daughter. Count is now staying at Carfax. Wolfsbane rather than garlic to repel Dracula. Does not murder Renfield. Adds curtain speech. (172-173)
• Quotes various reviews.

From Melton

• The stereotypical appearance of vampires in popular culture is still based on "the dominant figure of Dracula" from Deane's play. (loc 1449)

From Skal

• Speculates that Florence Stoker may have approved of Deane's more elegant presentation of the vampire because it contrasted with the animalistic portrayal in F. W. Murnau's movie Nosferatu, an unauthorized adaptation that she disliked. (107)
• Contradicts Wynne about date of license from the Lord Chamberlain -- says August 5. (107)
• Original death scene called for the men to visibly stab Dracula, with stage blood appearing on his clothes. Censored death scene has the men blocking the view of the audience, and Dracula vanishes in a cloud of dust when he is staked. (107-108)
• The set change for Dracula's death scene was done quickly, with an incomplete change of props hidden by the dim lighting. (108)
• Deane initially wanted to play the title role, but decided to play the role of Van Helsing, which had more lines in the finished script. (108)
• Raymond Huntley was the brother-in-law of Florence Stoker's agent; Deane cast him as Dracula for London production. (109)
• Huntley wore a cape with a tall collar so he could turn his back to audience and disappear. Huntley provided his own suits, but the cape was a prop. (110)
• Financial success touring English countryside made Deane open to doing a London production.

From Lachman

• Was once taken seriously, but has since become the object of humour. (147)

Changes

Deane made multiple changes from Stoker's novel in his adaptation. He streamlined the story by omitting all scenes set outside of England, including the opening sequence of Jonathan Harker visiting Transylvania and the final sequence of Dracula being chased through Europe. At the start of the story, the Harkers are already married, Dracula is in England, and Lucy Westenra (renamed Westera in the play) is dead. The action of the play occurs primarily in the Harkers' home. To better match the actors available in Deane's company, the character of Quincy Morris was changed from a man to a woman. Other characters, such as Dracula's vampire brides, were omitted. Deane also modernized the setting to the 1920s; Dracula arrives by airplane instead of a ship.

Balderston's revisions for the Broadway production included removing characters to reduce the total cast from 11 to 8. He rewrote the female lead as Lucy Seward, who is the daughter of Dr. Seward and fiancee of Jonathan Harker. He changed the setting to Seward's sanatorium instead of the Harker residence.

• Kabatchnik, Amnon (2009). Blood on the Stage, 1925–1950: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and Detection. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6963-9.

Reviews

Broadway:

• NYT 1927 Broadway: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990CE6D9143BE233A25755C0A9669D946695D6CF&legacy=true
• The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: https://www.newspapers.com/image/57285534/
• Brooklyn Life: https://www.newspapers.com/image/83361795/
• Pittsburgh Press: https://www.newspapers.com/image/146355232/

London (original)

• "The Opera House: Dracula". The Guardian. 23 August 1927. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Dracula". The Observer. 20 February 1927. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com. Play is frightening, but hampered by Deane's terrible writing

Other potential sources

• NYT on Nantucket production: http://www.nytimes.com/1973/07/09/archives/broadway-again-blooms-on-nantucket-worked-as-caretaker.html
• Gorey 1977: http://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/16/archives/gorey-goes-batty-the-master-of-the-morbid-has-spread-his-wings.html?_r=0
• In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires By Raymond T. McNally, Radu Florescu
• Dracula in the Dark: The Dracula Film Adaptations By James Craig Holte
• The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
• Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead.
• Lachman, Marvin (2014). The Villainous Stage: Crime Plays on Broadway and in the West End. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9534-4. OCLC 896343938.