Background The Irish author
Bram Stoker wrote the novel
Dracula while working as a manager for
Henry Irving's
Lyceum Theatre in London; he continued to work for Irving after it was published in May 1897. Stoker secured his theatrical rights to the story that same month by holding a
staged reading at the Lyceum; this hasty adaptation was never performed again. In 1899,
Hamilton Deane, a young Irish actor whose family owned an estate next to one belonging to Stoker's father, joined Irving's company. In the early 1920s, after both Irving and Stoker had died, Deane founded his own theatrical troupe, the Hamilton Deane Company. He began working on a theatrical version of
Dracula in 1923, and in 1924 he secured the permission of Stoker's widow
Florence to stage an authorized adaptation. At the time, Florence Stoker was engaged in a copyright dispute with the German film studio Prana Film over the film
Nosferatu, which adapted the plot of
Dracula without authorization, and she needed the money from the play royalties. Deane's play was the first dramatization authorized by Stoker's estate.
Original production To stage the production, Deane was required to submit the completed script to the
Lord Chamberlain for a license under the
Theatres Act 1843 (
6 & 7 Vict. c. 68). The play was
censored to limit violence – for example, the count's death could not be shown to the audience – but was approved on 15 May 1924. Deane's
Dracula premiered on 15 May 1924 at the
Grand Theatre in Derby, England. Deane had originally intended to play the title role himself but opted for the role of
Van Helsing. This production toured England for three years before settling in London, where it opened at the
Little Theatre in the Adelphi on 14 February 1927.
Broadway production in 1927. In 1927 the play was brought to
Broadway by producer
Horace Liveright, who hired
John L. Balderston to revise the script for American audiences. In addition to radically compressing the plot, Balderston reduced the number of significant characters.
Lucy Westenra and
Mina Murray were combined into a single character, making
John Seward Lucy's father and disposing of
Quincey Morris and
Arthur Holmwood. In Deane's original version, Quincey was changed to a woman to provide work in the play for more actresses. Directed by Ira Hards with scenic design by Joseph A. Physioc,
Dracula opened on 5 October 1927 at the
Fulton Theatre in New York City. It closed on 19 May 1928 after 261 performances. The Broadway production starred
Bela Lugosi in his first major English-speaking role;
Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing; and
Dorothy Peterson as Lucy Seward.
Raymond Huntley, who had performed the role of Dracula for four years in England, was engaged by Liveright to star in the U.S. touring production. The national tour began on 17 September 1928 in
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
1951 UK tour By the late 1940s, Lugosi's movie career had stalled, and he hoped to revive it by successfully bringing
Dracula back to the West End. Producers John C. Mather and William H. Williams staged a touring production across the UK. It premiered at the
Theatre Royal, Brighton on 30 April 1951. Lugosi's involvement got considerable press coverage, but the production received little interest from London theatres and never appeared on the West End. The tour ended at the
Theatre Royal, Portsmouth on 13 October 1951. It was Lugosi's last performance as Count Dracula.
1977 revival won a
Tony Award for Best Costume Design for the 1977 Broadway revival. took over the role of Count Dracula in October 1978. In 1973, the producer
John Wulp staged the play with the Nantucket Stage Company in
Nantucket, Massachusetts. He asked
Edward Gorey, an illustrator known for his macabre, surrealist imagery, to design the sets and costumes. Gorey, who had never worked in theatre before, created a mostly black-and-white design accented with red. Dennis Rosa directed and
Lloyd Battista starred as Dracula. Wulp subsequently moved the production to the
off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. In 1976, the producer Eugene Wolsk decided to revive
Dracula on Broadway, using the Gorey designs. He worked with Wulp and several co-producers, including
Jujamcyn Theaters, to stage the revival. The revival opened on 20 October 1977 at Jujamcyn's
Martin Beck Theatre, with Rosa directing. It closed on 6 January 1980 after 925 performances. The original cast of the revival included
Frank Langella as
Count Dracula (later replaced by
Raúl Juliá), Alan Coates as
Jonathan Harker, Jerome Dempsey as
Abraham Van Helsing, Dillon Evans as Dr. Seward, Baxter Harris as Butterworth, Richard Kavanaugh as R. M. Renfield, Gretchen Oehler as Miss Wells, and Ann Sachs as Lucy Seward. The show won two
Tony Awards for
Most Innovative Production of a Revival and
Best Costume Design (Edward Gorey). The Broadway producers established a road company that toured the U.S. in 1978 and 1979, with
Jean LeClerc as Dracula and
George Martin as Van Helsing.
Jeremy Brett starred as Dracula in Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Chicago. The U.S. revival also sparked a new production in London, where it opened on 13 September 1978 at the Shaftsbury Theatre.
Terence Stamp took the title role, with
Derek Godfrey as Van Helsing and
Rosalind Ayres as Lucy. ==Plot of the play==