Review: DRACAPELLA, Park Theatre

As Gothic novels go, Bram Stoker’s Dracula can actually be quite funny. There’s the cowboy who’s inexplicably present in 19th-century Yorkshire, and the way Jonathan Harker seems to see nothing wrong with doing routine real estate transactions at a remote Transylvanian castle.

Unfortunately, musical comedy adaptation Dracapella has channelled precisely none of this. This is not a skewering of the tropes of vampire fiction, or even a bawdy tale about being in a love triangle with a vampire, but an excuse to get out as many Amelia Bedelia-esque punny misunderstandings as possible in the space of two hours. Bringing out a dress when someone asks for your address, and the like.

Despite the time of year, it’s not quite a pantomime. Dan Patterson and Park Theatre director Jez Bond’s version of Dracula has some audience participation, shoehorned pop culture references and a pantomime dame-ish character (The Greatest Showman star Keala Settle as a blowsy Lucy Westenra). However, it lacks the necessary thematic clarity to tie all this together, so ends up feeling like actors performing a series of unrelated skits rather than a properly constructed story.

There are, admittedly, some attempts to raise the emotional stakes, and get a sense of why Patterson and Bond have chosen Dracula of all things as their source material. In this streamlined version of the novel, the blood-sucking Count (a regal Ako Mitchell) in this version is a loner pining after his lost love, who happens to look exactly like Jonathan’s wife Mina (Lorna Want).

This could be compelling, but often the plot has just got going when it gets thwarted by yet another pun, or worse, a scatological joke. Scenes involving Lucy proclaiming to Mina that she has “sh*tloads of money”, or Count Dracula’s creepy servant eating his wife’s fecal matter, feel like an awkward attempt to make a Victorian novel feel ‘contemporary’ without engaging with what might have made it speak to audiences in the first place.

The musical element is provided by covers, mostly of hits from the Eighties, though there are some exceptions to this, because very little in this show is consistent. These songs often have only the flimsiest connection to the plot, and it all feels like an excuse to hear Settle belt out ‘At Last’ by Etta James. Champion beatboxer Alex Hackett, aka ABH, has been recruited to fulfil the ‘acapella’ part of the title, but he’s mostly relegated to churning out beats at the back of the set.

One of the few saving graces here is the cast, whose exuberance papers over the cracks in the material. A recurring device is the potent combination of sound effects and mime work – cranking a rusty lift, spraying insect repellent and so on – and the cast, along with beatboxer Hackett and sound designer Niamh Gaffney, all shine when given a concept to bring to life in physical theatre.

It’s not enough, though. Technical skill cannot make up for Dracapella’s complete lack of any kind of dread, intrigue, or compelling narrative. One more unearned pun, and I’d be longing for a stake through the heart myself.

Dracapella plays at Park Theatre until 17 January 2026