Dracula review – Cynthia Erivo’s magnificent modern bloodsucker is defanged in one-woman show

2026-02-17 - 23:43

Noël Coward theatre, London Deploying accents and wigs, the Wicked star takes on all Bram Stoker’s characters, but the atmosphere lacks the fever or diabolicism required Are people born wicked? asks Ariana Grande’s “good witch” Glinda in Wicked, the musical film co-starring Cynthia Erivo as the green-skinned outsider, Elphaba. Bram Stoker’s classic story of elemental evil knows the answer to that question. Dracula, the Ur-vampire and ultimate outsider of the literary canon, is played by Erivo, along with every other character in this deliciously wicked tale of the blood-sucking count. Except it’s not deliciously wicked in adapter-director Kip Williams’ stage reinvention. Williams has proven himself a Midas-touched spinner of old stories to new. His one-woman version of The Picture of Dorian Gray was deliriously original. His take on Jean Genet’s The Maids was punk inspired. What has happened here? Continue reading...