FUN, FAST FRIGHTS: Big Dawg’s ‘Dracula’ has bite

Chase Harrison
Oct 21
6 min read

Cast of 'Dracula' presented by Big Dawg Productions. Photos by James Bowling

Deeply entrenched within Vampire lore is having to invite the living undead to enter your domain. A courtesy for the vampire, granting them supernatural power over the occupants. A concept dating all the way back to the 17th century, long before Stoker’s novel ever made the vampire household nightmares.

Thresholds aren’t just physical barriers to walk through; like the entrance to a theater, they’re magical. It's that supernatural magic that the cast and crew of Big Dawg Productions’, “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” invites all to… well, as Count Dracula said to Jonathan Hacker, “Enter freely and of your own will!”

Honestly though, the only thing frightening about this production would be to miss out on seeing it. Director Ben Thomas-Reid and Big Dawg Productions have put the petal to the metal this Halloween season, staging one of the funniest and fastest comedies I’ve seen in my tenure in the Cape Fear.

The production succeeds by exceeding in every single aspect of the theatrical arts. From the talents shaping the multitude of roles on stage, to the numerous unseen hands that allow it to appear so smoothly. I was left in awe.

In 2025, Big Dawg Productions celebrates 30 years producing plays in Wilmington. It is productions like this that prove just why Big Dawg stakes their claim as the company staging the best non-musical plays in the Port City.

Presented in an intermission free 90-minute tour-de-force, from the moment the audience finds their seat, the show immediately impresses. Be it the swirling lights which mirror bats flying over a red curtain night sky as the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents” theme song plays off over the sound system in the Bucky Stein Studio Theater. Set designer Terry Collins has outdone himself, utterly transforming the intimate studio theater into a sprawling Gothic castle. Two pull away curtains allow for reveals and to help craft the illusion of location changes; but once the final curtain is pulled back, WOW! I have never seen the Stein Theater transformed in such a way, nor did I believe it housed such space to pull off this level of stagecraft.

A rotating mid-section, paralleled on both sides by bookshelves, keep the action rightly, and literally spinning along. This Lazy Susan on stage is an amazing piece of stagecraft, transforming from a window, to a cabinet, to a Murphy bed, to Dracula’s coffins! Set constructors Collins and Tim Tyson deserve commendation.

The costuming, handled by David Thompson, must also be commended. Capturing the classical nature of the show’s setting, while energizing the vampiric subject matter with the rampant sex appeal it’s known for. From exquisite gowns to adorn the women, all the way to the tightly clad clothes of the “leather daddy” that was Dracula; it’s clear that costuming was not a second thought for the production.

The show opens with a moment of friendly warning, as the five-person cast appears cloaked on stage, commenting on the frights and gags that await the audience. The story takes place during the Victorian Era, as real-estate agent Jonathon Hacker (Casey Burton) has ventured to the far reaches of Eastern Europe to broker business dealings with the mysteriously alluring Count Dracula (Keon Joel).

Atop a couch led by hobby horses, a sight gag that rivals “Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s” clomping coconuts, Harker is transported and warned about the doom that awaits him at the dreaded Castle Dracula. Upon his arrival to the castle the laughs never stop, the script’s endless wit and parody of the novel paired with Thomas-Reid’s bounding stage blocking creates for sight and sound gags that are sure to leave every audience member howling.

The teasing dance between Harker and Dracula as they move about the stage where the Count is trying to sink his fangs into the Harker’s neck is hilarious. The scene is capped perfectly when Dracula admits he’s just looking for “That one special person to taste!” then quickly covering his tracks with “Trust! That one special person to trust!”

Right from his opening lines, Burton as Harker is a solid mix of player and part; the actor embraces the camp nature of the show, setting the pace for the rest of the cast and the tone for the audience. Burton embodies the repressive culture of the play’s 1897 setting, though, gives clear solar flares of a pent-up nature to Harker wanting out. Once turned into a vampire, in a spoiler I won’t give away here, Burton allows Harker’s freak flag to fly, pouncing on stage in a mesh top and leather pants, boasting the provocative attitude of a tomcat.

The play strikes a real “Dark Shadows” soap opera vibe with the ying-yang romance that is Harker and Lucy Westfeldt. Lucy is brought to life beautifully on stage by Madisyn Flemming, who gives the Lucy character the lust for the life of a modern woman. The actress also speaks the most pointed line in the play on the pitfalls of eternal life, “Too much is just as bad as not enough.”

Though Randy Davis scores plenty of laughs with his gender bent take on Dr. Van Helsing. It’s Davis’s turn as the sex-strived, dog-faced gremlin Mina Westfeldt which will leave audiences gasping for air between laughs. When the actor twirls around and the crimson waves of the red wig he wears plops down onto his shoulders, the cast and audience can join together in a combined, “EWWWW!”

Mina simply ignores these insults like water off a duck’s back, spouting “I got all the recessive genes!” Clearly the Jan to Lucy’s Marcia. When three eligible young bachelors (all played by Burton, with the help of sock puppets on each hand) come calling to the Westfeldt Estate, Mina throws herself at them. It’s this scene where the sight gag of all sight gags appears, a fire engine red merkin. Thomas-Reid promised outrageous humor, and the director did not mislead.

What I write next is with no exaggeration, Anna Gamel Huber is the best character actor to grace any Wilmington stage acting today. The work that the actress puts on for audiences within “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” is extraordinary, and a prime example of seeing an artist in their element. Huber scores laugh after laugh leaping, dashing, sinking, and at times spinning from one role to the next.

First playing the grizzled, old sea captain of the USS Stoker, Huber practically puts on a one-person show narrating the Captain’s Log of the damned vessel that brought the Count to England. It’s when the story reaches the shores that Huber truly breaks free in more ways than one. As sometimes, in the span of tearing away a fake mustache she plays the psychotic, bug eating Renfield then bounces to the stiff-upper-lipped psychiatrist, Dr. Westfeldt for a one-on-one conversation with herself!

Anyone who has seen Anna over the years on stage has watched the growth of her comedic skills, playing roles like the wacky sidekick Hunch in “Catastropolis,” to a murderous bunny in the musical “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” In a city that boasts its own yearly award show to honor theatrical achievement, take note to remember Huber’s work here when nomination time comes around. Truly an example of the craft at its peak.

Count Dracula is one of the most iconic fictional villains, with hundreds of actors having sported the black cloak and pointy teeth. Though the rest of the cast is fang-tastic, the production truly rests on the broad shoulders of its lead; Dracula being the title character and all. I assure you, dear reader, that Keon Joel more than makes the role his own and leads his cast perfectly. Arriving on the scene in an aerosol spray of mist, Joel strikes poses and finds a perfect balance between the sultry brooding of Gary Oldman from the film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”(1992) and Hank Azaria’s Agador Spartacus character from “The Birdcage” (1996). As the only actor to play a single part, Joel has the time to really hammer down the beats to his take on the Count. The actor’s physicality and facial expressions find a good range to keep it threatening, while simultaneously funny. Equally as impressive is how Joel performed with a set of fake fangs throughout the entire show, seemingly never hindered by them.

The night I attended the play, the packed house was hollering in laughter and applauding after every scene. It was clear a good time was had by all, on stage and off. Thomas-Reid and his cast have crafted the perfect night out for this spooky season. So, while traditionally the title character is known for it, Big Dawg’s Dracula does not suck.