The Dracula Spectacula
About the Production
It’s been seventeen years since Theatre Workshop Coulsdon first staged ‘The Dracula Spectacula’. At the time it was regarded by the group as probably the biggest and best production that had been performed by them up to that point (we’d only been in existence seven years by that time), involving over 50 people and having a full band.
1995 will be our 25th anniversary year, and we decided that we’d start the celebrations early, by revisiting what was a landmark production for the group.
Amazingly only two of those fifty members who were involved in the 1977 production are actively talking part this time – those being Chris Argles, the director who played Dracula in the original production, and Tim Young, who will recreate his role as Hans, the Innkeeper.
So, how well has ‘The Dracula Spectacula’ stood the test of time? Was it really the terrific show that we fondly remembered, or have the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia left us with a false impression? Well, let’s be honest, we had to make some changes to the script. Seventeen years doesn’t seem like a long time, but its enough to make some of the dialogue, and the characterisations, sound dated. A number of the songs too, which may have knocked them un-dead back in the day, really don’t cut it now, and so we’ve replaced them with exuberant pastiches of songs that you might just have heard before.
What you see tonight then is very much a brand-new incarnation – albeit of an old favourite, resurrected and rising from its dusty resting place with a whole new lease of life.
Whether this is the first or second time you’ve seen Theatre Workshop Coulsdon perform ‘The Dracula Spectacula’ we hope you enjoy the experience, and live to tell the tale!
The Cast
Behind the Scenes
Image Gallery
The Reviews
The myriad of village halls which play host to the rich seam of amateur dramatics that is such an essential part of British culture only occasionally throw up an imaginative workshop production like this. But how rewarding it is when it happens. Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s revival of this musical thriller they first staged in 1977 is built around a send-up of the Dracula story laced with freely adapted pop songs of the past 30 years.
In truth it’s a bit hit and miss, but when it hits it really strikes the target. The highlight was ‘Transylvanian Rhapsody’, loosely taken from Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (“any way the blood flows doesn’t really matter to me”), which was superb in singing, staging and special effects. It should be kept up by the group as a party piece long after the show has finished. The cast of twenty seven showed lots of imagination, especially the youngsters playing the Karloffia Glublick addicts.
Paul M Ford (Dracula) and Richard Lloyd (Nick Necrophiliac) were the two principals who gave the production shape when it tended to miss rather than hit. And the show could not have had its magic without Mark Taylor and his musicians.
Chris Argles, a veteran of the original Coulsdon show 17 years ago, directs some wonderful moments (with some great effects from Andy Kerner), though at times the show is just a little too clever for itself. The pacing is very rough and ready, especially in the first half, and some very witty touches get a little lost. But anyone who can make it to one of the three remaining performances should do so.
It’s just great fun, and any group that can put in the programme “We would like to apologies to Meatloaf, Abba, Queen, Manhattan Transfer, Tom Jones and The Carpenters but we flatly refuse to apologise to The Wombles, in fact we think they should apologise to us,” deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Chris Bowers for the Croydon Advertiser
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