So. The infamous "Dracula". With the new CD coming out at the same time as the new J&H CD, it's apt to discuss it now. There are clips on the Dracula page at the GVR site.

Love it? Hate it? I'm somewhere in between. I think it's a flawed but excellent show from what I've heard, and no, I didn't see it on Broadway...

I'll buy that CD. I love Lauren Kennedy.

After hearing the clips of Kate Shindle in lead roles in both J&H and this, I'm a little bit unimpressed. But I would have to hear the songs in their entirety to make a decision.

I didn't see it on Broadway either.

I am in talks with Jeremy Roberts( Global Vison records) to do an interview/article with the creative team and perhaps some of the cast as part of the double CD release ( Dracula/ J&H Resurrection).

And you really need to experience Kate live. She packs a punch when she sings. I saw her go on as Lucy on Bd'w her 4th time in the role. She totally made it her own, as she does the role in J&H the concert. She's fiesty and firey both onstage and off. Very talented and confident.

Hmmmm.... I'm hesitent to state an opinion, as I've never seen the show, and have neever heard the music other than the clips on GVR. I could really "get a feel" the new J&H recording through the clips, as I already knew all of the songs, but since I'd never heard "dracula" before, I'm not really sure. It sound great though, from the parts I heard. :)

I actually liked Kate Shindle A LOT - as Pati said, she is very firey and intense, something you rarely see in actresses playing Emma.

I keep saying this but - I CAN'T WAIT TO GET THESE TWO CD'S!!! :D

I've never heard Dracula until these Sound Clips... I like the "Masters Song" :)

What happened with it on Broadway? I've heard people made comments about it but don't really know the full story.

I don't like the music in it as much as J & H..

I thought Kate was Lucy and Brandi Burkhardt was Emma.

Who is Brandi Burkhardt, btw? I looked her up on Internet Broadway Database (IBDB.com) and didn't find anything.

Whoops. My bad. Well, whoever she was, I thought she was awesome! :D

I'll look around for Brandi's name, and post if I find anything. You know, I'd completely forgotten about the Internet Broadway Database. I've only been on there a few times, though I use the Internet MOVIE Datbase all the time. :)

I love Dracula. I was lucky enough to see it on Broadway, and was amazed by it. I am, however, very disapointed by the sound clips from the concept recording. I have no problems with Kate Shindle, but I think she is a very bad choice for the role of Mina. In my opinion, the way she sings simply does not work for that role. I also think that James Barbour, while good, does not really seem like Dracula as far as his singing goes. He and Kate Shindle also seem to me to have no chemistry in their songs together, and their vocal types seem to only work against one another. I thought that Melissa Errico was wonderful as Mina on Broadway, as was Kelli O'Hara as Lucy, and I wish that more of the overall superb Broadway cast could have been in the concept recording.

I haven't seen it on Broadway, but I kind of like it, so I may get the CD.

Do Dracula and Mina develop feelings for each other in the show? I read Bram Stoker's original novel, and I liked how he portrayed John's and Mina's love and devotion to each other. I'm not a big fan of relationships between Dracula and Mina, but that's probably because I read the original novel first.

Yes, the musical is very big on Mina/Dracula. But it also portrays Mina/Jonathan quite sympathetically too, in my opinion. They get a nice song together called "Whitby Bay" and Jonathan gets to sing a very sweet song about his love for Mina called "Before the Summer Ends". I do, however, think that they rushed into Mina/Dracula a bit, and that that was one of the main problems with the show, the way they handled the relationship. And especially the ending...which did not have enough character development leading up to it, in my opinion.

I'm a great Mina/Jon fan as well, Sin... I'm also a Drac/Jon fan, but that's another story...

You really like Jonathan, then? :)

As long as we're talking about shipping...does anyone like Dracula/Lucy? Or Lucy/Seward? Well, does anyone like Lucy? (Westerna, not Harris ;) )

I kind of liked Lucy with her fiance. I think his name was Arthur. He seemed really devoted to her. I always thought she was a bit of a weak character (based off of her docile manner and sleep walking), but I'm basing my opinions from the book. Was she portrayed differently in the musical?

Well, I don't know about the musical, but in the movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula" with Winona Ryder, all of the female characters were expanded, including Lucy. The movie is also very big on Mina/Dracula - actually the whole movie is centered around they're romance. ("Love Never Dies" is the tagline).

That's an interesting idea, FFF... they're certainly were some bits in Bram Stoker's novel that had me wondering... :)

Yes, Arthur. He did seem very devoted to her, though I personally have a fondess for Dr. Seward, who went into depression and became addicted to morphine after she rejected him. He seemed like the most intelligent of the three.

I think whether or not you think Lucy is a weak character really depends on opinion. I certainly think she wasn't as strong as Mina, but I'm not sure whether I think she was a weak character or not. In the musical they expand on the hints we have of her fascination with Dracula, and very sexual attraction to him (in contrast with Mina's relationship with Dracula, which is portrayed as being more romantic rather than overtly sexual). The infamous nudity scene in the musical was of her. I suppose you could say that she was portrayed as being less weak because in the musical she definatly seems to be choosing to be with Dracula. She has a good part in the musical, with a very funny and clever song "How Do You Choose?" involving her and her three suitors, a beautiful solo called "The Mist" and the Act One Finale, "Life After Life".

I personally didn't like the way they portrayed the Mina/Dracula romance in "Bram Stoker's Dracula". Of course, I personally have a raging hatred for that movie, because I feel everyone but Van Helsing was written completly out of character. I also think Winona Ryder was quite a bad choice for the part of Mina. And I have to disagree with you on that movie expanding Mina's character. Perhaps it's the way I interperted the book, but Mina seemed to be one of the main characters, perhaps an even larger character than Jonathan to me. In fact, I thought that "Bram Stoker's Dracula" made her character less strong, and less able to fend for herself, which was one of the things I admired about her in the first place.

I think that most of the movies put some Dracula/Jonathan subtext in there as well. The musical certainly has a few moments...such as this one...

Jonathan: But do you know anyone in England? (not an exact quote)

Dracula: I know you.

I didn't like the movie either. It had this concept where Mina was the reincarnation of Dracula's wife, plus it had the romance between the two. When I first saw it I was thinking, "What the heck is this?!" :( I felt sorry for Johnathan.

Hmmm, Dracula/Johnathan. There were a few hints in the novel.

I always wondered...

I'm a big fan of Mina/Dracula romance (it's what I write in my fan fiction) personally, but I didn't like the way it was done in Bram Stoker's Dracula. I felt that if they had to justify it by putting the whole pointless reincarnation thing in there, then they don't need it in the first place. I like Mina/Dracula done as a darker sort of romance, myself. Though I would have been able to stand the Mina reincarnation plot if the character didn't keep going OOC every five seconds. I wanted to break something every time Mina said "my Prince".

You bring up a good point here. The Mina/Dracula bedroom scene can be seen as "a whole bunch of big brave men saving the innocent young girl who just couldn't help herself." But I think it can also be seen as a moment when "a group of big, stupid guys break in and try to stand in the way of true love". I didn't agree with everything in the movie, but I still liked it a lot.
But I personally found it hard to feel sorry for Jonathan, though this was probably mainly due to Keanu Reeves's acting. :)

Has anyone seen the 1979 "Dracula" with Frank Langella? I didn't like it near as much as "Bram Stoker's Dracula," mainly because of the rather hokey script... but Frank Langella made up for it, and was a great Dracula.

It too has a romantic subplot, this one between Lucy and Dracula. But in this movie Lucy's and Mina's roles are reversed - Lucy is Jonathan's fiance, and Mina dies. :huh: Don't ask why.

Or a mixture of both. That's normally how I choose to interpert it. :)

I can't stand his acting. Am I the only one who finds it impossible to not laugh when he says "There were bloody wolves chasing me!" in the horrible tone of voice, or do others find that amusing too?

No, I haven't. I probably should, but for one reason or another never got around to doing so. I think it's really rare that Dracula movies have really good scripts. Most of Bram Stoker's Dracula was tolerable because it was taken from the book, but anything that wasn't was difficult to listen to, in my opinion. The only Dracula movie that I've actually liked was Werner Herzog's remake of Nosferatau, which came out at around the same time as the Frank Langella version. It has little to do with the actual story, but it's a beautiful movie, and Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani are amazing in it.

Alot Dracula movies do strange things like that. Out of the ones I've seen, the've done:

Murnau's Nosferatau: There is no Lucy - instead we have a hybrid of Mina and Lucy named Ellen. At the end he feeds on her for so long that the sun rises and kills him. She dies. There are no vampire brides.

Bela Lugosi in Dracula: Jonathan turns into Renfield. No, really. Dr. Seward is Lucy's father, and we only see Lucy for about five seconds before she's dead. And Jonathan/Renfield was not related to either Lucy or Mina.

The Horror of Dracula: Now here's the confusing one. Jonathan is married to Lucy, and Arthur is Lucy's brother and is married to Mina. You have not lived until you have heard the name Mina Holmwood uttered in this movie. Jonathan is a vampire hunter who pretended to be a librarian to get into Dracula's castle. There is one vampire bride who wears a neo-Grecian dress, and Jonathan kills her. Then Dracula turns Jonathan into a vampire. Then Van Helsing (who is about thirty in this, and a good friend of Jonathan's) kills vampire!Jonathan.

Werner Herzog's Nosferatau: Similar to Murnau's Nosferatau, except taht the Mina/Lucy character is named Lucy instead of Ellen. She's a really great character, btw. She has a friend named Mina who we see for about five seconds and who is killed near the end of the film, but does not turn into a vampire. Jonathan turns into a vampire at the end. Lucy sacrifices herself so that Dracula will be caught by the sunlight.

Then there's Bram Stoker's Dracula...but everyone's seen that one already.

I've seen, and the script was rather weird. Wasn't Van Helsing Mina's father in this?
I was really annoyed when he was killed in the end.

Langella's Dracula was well done. That was one of the few things I liked in this version. :)

This is probably one of my favorite Draculas too, along with the original 1922 "Nosferatu". They're both amazing. However, "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is also one of my top favorites too. :P

I think one of the most facinating things (in my opinion) about "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is how it links Vlad the Impaler to the fictional Dracula (this is actually in the novel, though it's not as important to the plot - Van Helsing talks about one "Voivede Dracula". I was amazed, when comparing Gary Oldman to portraits of the real Vlad how much they actually look alike.

Overall, I loved all of the actors in "Bram Stoker's," (especially Anthony Hopkins's Van Helsing). But Keanu Reeves is an exception. He looked the part, but when you saw him actually acting (aka "trying to act") it wasn't too good.

And Priestess: You MUST see the Frank Langella "Dracula." Like Sin said, the script wasn't good, but Langella's performance is awesome. And as a plus (at least for women, anyway) his Dracula is often cited as the sexiest ever.

It's actually a re-make of the Bela Lugosi version - both were based on stage play, and not directly on the novel. The play is very popular, though I could never see why; it's way too campy, and the dialogue is very stiff. But both Lugosi and Langella managed to make both they're not-too-good "Dracula" films very watchable.

Oh, BTW: Sin, you're right on target; Van Helsing was Mina's father in the Langella version. :)

I was hoping I got that right, it's been a while since I've seen it.

Has anyone seen any of the Dracula movies with Christopher Lee? I've seen Dracula, Prince of Darkness, Scars of Dracula, a small bit of Horror of Dracula, and some weird take on the original book called Count Dracula, or something like that. The best part of Count Dracula was the music. :lol:

Is "Count Dracula" worth seeing? It was supposed to be real close to the book, and I've seen pictures from it and Dracula looked like he did in the novel (gray hair/moustache, etc.) I also heard Klaus Kinski plays Renfield. But I havn't seen it; I've been reluctant because it's directed by Jess Franco, who's directed plenty of cheap, stupid movies. (One of his newer movies was a lesbian version of "Frankenstein" called "Lust of Frankenstein".... Hmm... Believe it or not, even I'm not intersted in watching that one :P )

But, concerning "Count Dracula," I guess anything with Christopher Lee can't be awful.

I've only seen part of "Horror of Dracula" too, and really liked it. I've been trying in vain to get a DVD of "Scars of Dracula," but it's out-of-print and pretty expensive. :)

I thought "Count Dracula" moved a bit slow at times. I don't think it did the characters justice. Lucy barely says two words before she's bitten, and after that she hardly speaks at all. Also, Dracula sends Mina a letter saying it's from Johnathan and that he wants to meet her at the theater. While she's watching the people sing, he sneaks up behind her and bites her. Personally, I think it could have been better.

I've been trying to find DVDs of "Horror of Dracula" and "Dracula, Prince of Darkness". I recorded "Scars of Dracula" a little after midnight because I had school the next day, and I really wanted to see it. So late the next night I started watching it. It was more bloody than I expected it to be. Dracula had this huge bat, and it would fly around and rip people's faces up. I couldn't stand seeing their faces like that, so I later recorded over it. But it was still a pretty good movie.

Yay, someone who likes this one! :D

I thought this was a good idea, though, in my opinion, it wasn't carried out all that well. I thought they could have accomplished that and the romance without making Dracula into a completly sympathetic character the way they did here. Damn it, I wanted to see the Dracula from the novel, who says to Mina "You know now...what it is to cross my path", "And you their best beloved one, are now flesh of my flesh and blood of my blood, kin of my kin" and "You have aiding in thrawting me; now you will come to my call. When my brain says 'Come!' you shall cross land and sea to do my bidding." I liked weird romances. :)

I'll be sure to see it now. :) I didn't like Bela Lugosi as Dracula all that much, but then, there are very few people that I've liked as Dracula.

Yes, Horror of Dracula. That was quite enough for me.

I guess I just don't like the Hammer films style then, because I really couldn't stand Horror of Dracula. In my opinion, the best part was the vampire bride with the neo-Grecian dress. I loved her! :)

Has anyone seen the fictional take on the making of "Nosferatu" called "Shadow of the Vampire"? It was about how Murnau got a real vampire to play Orlock. I found it very eerie and haunting. The make-up on the actor who played the vampire was amazing! He looked really similar to the original Nosferatu, in my opinion.

I have yet to see this movie. :( I really have to, as I'll probably love it.

I suppose you're right here; I too longed for a more evil Dracula at times. But Oldman's interpretation was certainly unique and different. It was pretty creepy though when he gives that little baby to the Brides...

I don't know about "Prince of Darkness," but "Horror of Dracula" isn't too hard to find; I've seen it in several different stores. But try eBay. YOu can get pretty much anything there.

It's like that with me too a lot of times. I'm one of those guys that covers his eyes whenever anything gory happens in a movie. But a lot of times I'll go back later and make myself watch those bits, as I can't stand the thought of missing something in a movie. :)


I recently watched this positively awful movie from 1971 called "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein". The reward for the worst Dracula of all time goes to the actor in this movie, some guy calle Zandor Vorkov. He had kind of poofy black hair and a beard, and just kind of walked around bulging out his eyes and speaking in this terrible flat, monotone voice. As for the Creature, he had a face that looked like it was made out of gray poster putty.

In one scene Dracula takes control of the Creature, and orders him to kill this guy. Supposedly, the Creature was supposed to have been turned into a vampire by now, and was supposed to lay fang to the man. But the makeup/costume was so puffy he couldn't get to his neck, so the director decided that he just had to crush him instead. :blink:

Oh, yeah, did I mention it also has a lengthy (and pointless) song and dance number featuring the herione, some awful, awful AWFUL romantic pop song during the romantic bits, an evil dwarf, a carnival, and also a (equally pointless) acid trip?

So in conclusion, I didn't like it. :rolleyes: I didn't even find its stupidity funny, just boring as all hell.

Yeah, I try to force myself to watch the gory parts of movies, too. It took me six tries before I was able to watch "Sleepy Hollow" all the way through. :rolleyes:

I think it's hard to make a movie of Dracula and Frankenstein together. They're complete opposites! Dracula is charming, elegant, and deceptive, while Frankenstein is a more sympathetic character.

"Shadow of the Vampire" was wonderful. It was hard to like the characters though, because they didn't have many admirable traits. Especially Murnau, who didn't care that the vampire was eating some of his crew, unless it was someone important for the making of his film. At one point the vampire, known as Max Schreck, drains most of the blood from the photographer, so Murnau has to get a new one. Their conversation went something like this:

Murnau: "But why did you eat the photographer?! Why him, you monster?! Why not ... the script girl?!"
Schreck: "Oh, the script girl. I'll eat her later."
Murnau: "NO! No you won't! Not until I finish my film!"

I found that part funny, for some reason. It kind of shows you how much Murnau cares about his cast and crew. <_<

Has anyone seen Andy Warhol's "Blood for Dracula"? I saw it at he store the other day and almost bought it. It goes sometihng like this: Dracula needs virgin (pronounced "where-gin") blood to survive. There are no virgins to be found in Transylvania and he's dying, so he travels to Italy because he figures that the Church has power oveer there and he'll be able to find a steady food supply. He finds lots of women who claim that they're "where-gins") but no real ones, thanks to some vampire hunter guy who is bedding every girl he can get his hands on to sae them from the vampire. There are supposed to be some very nice scenes in which Dracula vomits "un-pure" blood. In the end Dracula gets impaled and chopped into tiny pieces. :blink: I haven't seen it, though I'm kind of curious.

I saw Andy Warhol's "Flesh for Frankenstein," though, and it was certainly bizzare, but actually very funny - with some hilarious lines. Here's a sample:

"How DARE you wake me in the middle of the day when you know I have insomnia!"

"TWO women?? ONE MAN??????!!! He must be very POWERFUL, Otto! Look at his head!"

"You filthy thing!!!"

I really liked "Sleepy Hollow"; Johnny Depp was brilliant. But the finale ("kill them!!!!") was rather hokey and contrived, I thought. :)

Those are some funny lines! :) I haven't seen "Blood for Dracula", but now I'm curious about it.

One of the parts I found funny in "Sleepy Hollow" (once I forced myself to watch it)was when the horseman put his head back on and the flesh started to grow back. My sister and I started laughing when he screamed and his tongue stuck straight out of his mouth. :P It probably wouldn't have been as funny if it hadn't been for the tongue thing.

On the subject of NOSFERATU: I and Matan Ben-Ishay are working on an interesting musical of it now. You can listen to some of the music at: this site

Well, rockfenris, I as just listening/reading your guys's "Nosferatu" material, and I must once again say that it is awesome. I cannot wait to get my hands on the album!!! :D

Aw, I'd forgotten about that part! That was REALLY funny. It makes me want to re-watch the movie. Or what about the part where Brom gets sliced in half?

In "Flesh for Frankenstein" there's a part in the end where the Creature stabs this long pole through Baron Frankenstein's back - it comes out his chest (ala "Sleepy Hollow") but stuck on the end is the baron's liver! Gross! He stumbles around and screams in his awful German accent - "I will not die in WAIN!" (yep, that's how he pronounced it).

The whole movie is, like I said, mondo bizzare. It starts out with the Baron and his assistant Otto making plans to mate they're female creature with the male creature they're building (so "they vill pop-oo-late and pop-oo-late..." All they need is a head, but the head of a real lady's man, of course, so the go along to a brothel (he pronounces it as rhyiming with "hotel") and slice off this guy's head - but they get the wrong dude, and he was about to become a monk! So he has no interest whatsoever in, you know... and everything gets all messed up... you have the baron's wife/sister going after the new male Creture, and they're two kids just standing around looking freaky.... The director has a real obsession with showing people's intestines... I was covering my eyes plenty when I was watching this one!

So, yeah, it's weird. Another great line is:

"Hit him! Make him unconcious! But not his head! Don't damage his head in any way; I need it for my zombie!!!"

:P

:lol: That's great! How can you hit someone into an unconcious state without hitting the head? That definitely sounds like a weird movie, especially with the funny pronunciations of some of the words.

Regarding "Sleepy Hollow": It was kind of obvious that Brom was going to get killed. He tries to fight a dead guy who doesn't have a head, and who violently killed others before his death. Now that the horseman is back from the dead, he's going around cutting off people's heads, and no one knows how to stop him. When the horseman starts to leave, with his weapon in hand, Brom decides to chase after him with farming tools, so the horseman chops him in two. I was thinking, "Brom, you idiot, what did you think was going to happen?!" :P
There's a bit of humor in that scene.

rockfenris, your "Nosferatu" is wonderful. Some of the songs have a somewhat elegant feel to them. I'm looking forward to when the album comes out. :)

I agree; the humor rather lightened that part up. But then again, there was so much humor throughout the film that the gore didn't seem near as intense as it might have been.

"Flesh for Frankenstein" was originally shown in theaters in 3D - so the exaggerated gore effects would have maximum imact. Your question about that quote is certainly a good one, and I have absoloutely no idea what the answer is (they showed the guy getting knocked out offscreen.)

What about "Dracula" comedies? Has anyone seen any? ("Love at First Bite," Dracula: Dead and Loving It," etc.) I know Christopher Lee was in a non-Hammer comedy called "Dracula and Son." It was French, I believe. I just bought a copy of "Love at First Bite" and am certainly going to watch it soon - I've just got so many videos/DVD's to watch; I still haven't got around to watching the Robert Englund "Phantom of the Opera"! Soon, though, soon. :)

I saw "Love at First Bite" a while ago. From what I can remember, it had some funny parts.

I've seen the trailer, and it had a funny part from the bedroom scene:

"What? Are you biting me? Oh God, that is SO kinky..."
:)

Oh yes, I remember that one. :lol: One of my favorite funny lines from that is:

"Children of the night, shut up!"

I found that so hilarious and I don't know why. :)

That is HILARIOUS!!! I HAVE to watch this movie... :lol: