A BLOODY HILARIOUS DRACULA

A stellar cast vamps it up and camps
it up to breathe life into a
horror classic about the undead

Paul Melendy (center) with Thalia Gerloff and Doug Lockwood in Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, is a lovingly constructed farce that, per the script, is “very loosely based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.” Loosely is the operative word here, and director Christopher V. Edwards lets the excellent cast lean into the full silliness of the story with gender-bending roles and physical comedy in this just-in-time-for-Halloween production from Actors’ Shakespeare Project.

Paul Melendy (center) with Nicholas Papayoanou, Doug Lockwood, Bobbie Steinbach, and Thalia Gerloff

Nicholas Papayoanou and Paul Melendy

No one steals this show, and no one needs to—the entire cast walks away with it. Paul Melendy earns star billing as the narcissistic and seductive Dracula, but Nicholas Papayoanou is sweetly winning as the timid and naïve realtor Jonathan Harker, who sells Dracula a house near that of Harker’s fiancée Lucy, a charming Thalia Gerloff. Lucy, a would-be scientist with a beautiful neck, soon becomes the object of Dracula’s bloodlust.

Doug Lockwood and Thalia Gerloff

Doug Lockwood and Paul Melendy

Tall, beefy Doug Lockwood is delightful as Lucy’s less attractive sister Mina and also as the statuesque German doctor Van Helsing, brought in to cure Mina of what ails her after she is bitten by Dracula. Diminutive Bobbie Steinbach scoots about the stage as the mentally disturbed, insect-eating servant Renfield and radiates puffed-up self-importance in the role of the patriarchal Dr. Westfeldt, father to Lucy and Mina.

Doug Lockwood, Thalia Gerloff, Nicholas Papayoanou

Thanks to intimacy director Leanna Niesen, the romantic encounters are especially enjoyable, including the pairing of Westfeldt and Van Helsing as well as of Lucy and Harker, Harker and Dracula, and Mina and Dracula.

(Clockwise from left) Thalia Gerloff, Doug Lockwood, Nicholas Papayoanou, Bobbie Steinbach

Danielle Ibrahim’s minimal set design is an additional source of humor when actors bounce on static benches to indicate a bumpy carriage ride. They shift from one role to another with Zoë Sundra’s swift-change costumes or even by simply donning or removing a wig right in front of us. Mackenzie Adamick’s sound design lets us “see” things not on the stage, and Brian Lillienthal’s lighting design makes the ordinary eerie. Clever stagecraft and props (Christina Ostner) allow, for example, Lockwood to play the role of Doctor Van Helsing while attending to the ailing Mina, Lockwood’s other role.

Doug Lockwood, Thalia Gerloff, Nicholas Papayoanou

Bobbie Steinbach

All in all, the production is a needed antidote to the ordinary horrors of the present day. Laughter is also a weapon; nothing infuriates the powerful and those who would suck the lifeblood from us more than mockery.

Doug Lockwood, Bobbie Steinbach, and Nicholas Papayoanou

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photos by Benjamin Rose Photography

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors
Actors’ Shakespeare Project
The Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA
95 minutes, no intermission
ends on November 1, 2026
for tickets, visit Actors’ Shakespeare Project

for more shows, visit Theater in Boston

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