Vampire fans will find themselves in Transylvania Heaven at The Nocturne Theatre’s stunningly staged in-the-round revival of Dracula The Musical, now thrillifying audiences while treating them to some of the most spectacular vocals in town.

Based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror classic, Dracula the musical recounts the tale of Jonathan Harker (AJ Castro), a handsome young lawyer who had no idea what awaited him when he arrived at the castle owned by Count Dracula (Justin Meyer) deep in the Romanian countryside.

Little did he realize that he’d be receiving a nocturnal visit from four Vampiresses (Lisa-Marie Burnside, Kimberly Butler, Rachel Fictum, and Abhaya Krishnan-Jha) bound and determined to suck the blood from his body and erase all thoughts of his beauteous raven-haired fiancée Mina Murray (Samantha Rose) from his mind.

Meanwhile back in London, Mina’s blonde bestie Lucy (Kelly Krippendorf) finds herself torn between three potential fiancés—Texas cowboy Quincey Morris (Truman Bjarke), mental hospital proprietor Dr. Jack Seward (Christian Lees), and childhood sweetheart Arthur Holmwood (Tyler Angier).

Popping up along the way are Dracula’s institutionalized servant Renfield (Andrew Diego) and a vampire expert (J.D. Wallis as Abraham Van Helsing) who’s been summoned to Lucy’s side to help protect her from Dracula’s fangs, though unfortunately even his best efforts can’t prevent the count from draining every single drop of blood from her body.

If the above synopsis comes across more than a tad bewildering, then like me you’ve probably never read Stoker’s novel or seen Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 screen adaptation, which I’m told is the most faithful of the myriad screen versions of the source material.

Luckily for Dracula neophytes like this reviewer, even without figuring out exactly who’s who and what’s going on, there is much to savor in this rare revival.

 To begin with there’s Frank Wildhorn’s music (lyrics by book writers Don Black and Christopher Hampton), which is about as gorgeous as it gets, and yes, Wildhorn does get flak for writing stand-alone pop songs that don’t advance or add depth to the plot, but to be absolutely fair, he’s not the one writing the lyrics and if you don’t like Wildhorn’s songs, then you probably hate Diane Warren’s too, and she’s chalked up 16 Best Song Oscar nominations and counting. So sue me for liking them both.

Secondly, with voices like those of the always sensational Meyer, whose tenor pipes not only hit the rafters, he’s directed the whole shebang, or the captivating Rose, who’s got as gorgeous a pop soprano as pop sopranos get, not to mention vocally blessed supporting players Angier, Bjarke, Castro, Diego, Krippendorf, Krishnan-Jha, Lees, and Wallis, each of whom deliver the dramatic goods as well, I’m certainly not complaining each time they launch into another soaring Wildhorn melody.

Not only that, but Vampiress Burnside’s aerial choreography never ceases to dazzle, and there’s a lot of it being executed high above the stage by Butler, Fictum, and Burnside herself in one dream or dreamlike sequence after another. (There’s some nifty, more traditional choreography too by Burnside and assistant director Melissa Meyer.)

Adding to the event-status nature of The Nocture’s latest is the production’s rock concert-ready onstage live band made up of Chris Wade (music director, keyboards, arranger), Eddy Barco (drums), Audrey Bean (bass), and Dan Kalisher/Lowell Wolfe (guitar). (No prerecorded tracks this time.)

Costume designer/creature designer extraordinaire Tanya Cyr has really let her imagination go wild on this one, creating one fantasy-tastic outfit after another built by Cyr and Gavin Dietz, with added design snaps to Immortal Masks for their horror-rific Dracula Creature Masks.

Director/star Meyer wears more hats than Orson Welles in this one, joining Seth Logan for the production’s atmospheric scenic design and doubling (tripling? quadrupling?) as lighting designer, assisted by Micah Delhauer, all of the above adding up to a production that that’s mysterious and spooky from start to finish.

Sydni Sawyer is scenic painter. Matt Merline is sound engineer and Stuart Brawely is audio technician. Delhauer is stage manager.

The horror genre may not be my thing, but if it happens to be yours, then Dracula The Musical is guaranteed to tickle your horror-loving fancy, no matter whether you’re a musical theater aficionado or not.

As for the diehard musical theater lover writing this review, though it’s not a show I’d want to see over and over again as I have so many other musicals, I certainly can’t complain about having added it to my “been there, done that” list.

The Nocturne Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale.
www.TheNocturneTheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
August 21, 2025

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Tags: Christopher Hampton, Don Black, Frank Wildhorn, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Nocturne Theatre