User Reviews

First off, this production is not to be confused with Michael Nouri's Dracula in the NBC Cliffhanger TV series from 1979-1980. This played at least 4 times on Showtime TV in 1980. I was 14 and a half years old and unfortunately my family did not own a vcr at that time I wish my family did own one at that time though but that wouldn't happen till 4 years later because if I had had a vcr at that time this definitely would have been taped. Soap Opera Actor Christopher Bernau who played the character of Dracula on stage for at least 4 years was Dracula and Malachi Throne was Van Helsing. Both actors turned in wonderful performances. This version is based on the Bob Hall and David Richmond stage play of Bram Stoker's Dracula which was the second stage version to be a universal hit. It compares quite well with the Hamilton Deane and John Balderston Broadway Stage Hit. Bernau's Dracula compared quite well with Frank Langella's stage and screen portrayal of Dracula. This story had retained several of the characters of the novel. Dr.Jack Seward is called Cedric Seward, Lord Godalming is the lover in this version of the Non-Stoker character Freudian psychiatrist Helga Van Zandt,a colleague of Dr.Van Helsing. Wilhelmina Murray is the niece of Dr.Seward in this version and fiancé of Jonathan Harker. The character of Renfield is also in this version . I myself wasn't too crazy about the portrayal of Dr.Van Zandt a very campy performance.She kind of in appearance reminds one of Mary Woronov's Miss Togar in Rock'N'Roll High School that character almost matched Renfield in lunacy.Now here comes the spoiler she becomes a vampire.The shrink who tried to analyze becomes vampirized. Renfield was well played and as nutty as ever. Christopher Bernau was fine in the role except in one scene where he picks up Mina. He overacted in that part. Dracula has a big thing for Mina in this production. The curly haired actress played a romantic Mina was definitely a cross in acting between Helen Chandler and Kate Nelligan.Well done performance with a good mixture of innocence and sexuality. Alas, the character of Lucy or other girls (there was only one female in England in the novel and that was Lucy) are never shown in this version. She and several other girls are mentioned as having mysteriously died at the beginning of the story. This Dracula by the way is trying to make an undead harem of wives. Any pretty girl gets the bite as Dracula puts it in his own wording in this version he left three back in Rumania why not start all over again in England. Now for Lord Gordon Godalming he is one lovesick puppy over the "ethical" Dr.Van Zandt. What does this have in common with the Stoker novel. Mina lives,Renfield and Dracula die! This version is updated in time to take place in the 1900's a few years before the first world war. Few Dracula and Vampire fans know little about this version but those of us who do would like it to some day hopefully be released on DVD. Showtime theatre and HBO put out many fine televised theater productions in the early days of cabletv and this one of them. Sherlock Holmes,Bus Stop,Pygmalion,Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Camelot just to name a few of the others. Anyone who enjoyed Frank Langella's 1979,Bela Lugosi's 1931 and the Spanish 1931 George Melford filmizations of the Hamilton Deane and John Balderston stage play adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula will enjoy this one and only televised version of Bob Hall and David Richmond's rival stage play hit of Dracula.Anyone interested or someone who never got to see this version an amateur or college abbreviated stage version of the Bob Hall and David Richmond Play is at YouTube and My Space.