It’s all treats, with some quick-change tricks in Ensemble Theatre Company’s newest show: Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. The recent Off-Broadway comedy hit opened this weekend at the New Vic Theatre with a hard-to-resist, tongue-in-cheek, teeth-in-neck charm.
There’s definitely no pun left behind in this high-energy, giggly comedy.
In addition to the fabulously funny and hilariously hunky Adam Hagenbuch as Dracula (we’ve previously seen him in ETC’s The Thanksgiving Play and on TV in American Horror Story), the rest of the cast works their rears off playing multiple roles with quick costume and character changes to great comedic effect. Actors Casey J. Adler (MIX-MIX: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy at the Los Angeles Theater Center and Henry V at Shakespeare Orange County), Janna Cardia (Emma and A Christmas Carol, both at ETC), Regina Fernandez (A Christmas Carol at ETC and The Comedy of Errors at Orlando Shakespeare), and Josh Odsess-Rubin (A Shayna Maidel at Laguna Playhouse and Photograph 51 at South Coast Repertory) are all terrifically game and go way over-the-top to mine every possible laugh and sight gag in Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. The fun they’re having is definitely infectious.
The “all-in” to entertain us spirit of the Halloween season is infused throughout this cheeky production. Is it high-class? Not in the least! But it brings high-art, low-brow comedy to Downtown Santa Barbara (think fart jokes, sexual innuendo, and silliness galore) for a dose of bloody good fun that’s just what the doctor ordered these days!
See Ensemble Theatre Company’s Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors at the New Vic Theatre (33 W. Victoria St.) through October 27. Click here for more info and tickets.
