‘Count Dracula’ walks fine line between scares, laughter at UNLV

AAAAAAAAAAH!

(Echo, echo, echo, echo, echo ...)

Whoa, woman!

Rattle our brainpans till they rip free and bounce around our skulls, why don't ya?

Impressive howling and yowling, guaranteeing an appointment with a throat specialist. Shook up some poor kids near Rehearsal Room 206 and nearly gave the Count a coronary.

"Outside there were a couple of kids taking a test and I thought they'd have to use the bathroom to change something," says Jordan Bondurant, aka Count Dracula, rehearsing inside the fine arts building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "The rest of us were uneasy for the rest of the night."

Hand that actress her props. Fright is her business this night.

Fine-tuning creepiness -- with a touch of comedy -- is tonight's agenda for "Count Dracula," which will fang it up on UNLV's Judy Bayley stage, courtesy of Nevada Conservatory Theatre.

"It's harder to frighten a live audience now," says David Ivers, co-artistic director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, making his UNLV directing debut as he mounts "Count," which co-stars his Utah co-artistic director, Brian Vaughn. "There is the onslaught of genre films like 'Twilight' and 'True Blood,' so you say, 'How much do I borrow from it and how much should I put together dramatized action based on a classic novel?' "

Playwright Ted Tiller already altered the iconic tale in this 1971 reboot of Bram Stoker's Victorian novel. This spin around,t the legend is set in 1930s Great Britain, uppercrust accents intact.

Our beloved plasma-chugger (originally inspired by Vlad the Impaler) moves into a remote London neighborhood, where he's invited to dinner at a combo home/insane asylum by the friendly sister of its director, Dr. Seward. There, The Drac meets the yummy Mina, Seward's young ward, whom he sees not just as a snack, but a potential Mrs. Count.

"It begins as sort of a drawing room comedy," says NCT vet Phil Hubbard, who portrays Doc Seward. "Then the horror that comes in is wonderful and surprising. Of course the audience expects Dracula, but it also has this kind of levity and British charm."

Comedic elements are contained, however -- "I'm not interested in camping it up," Ivers insists -- with subtlety necessary to tie the two tones together.

"It's going to be tricky if people want to commit to the comedy of it, then they'll question, 'Should I be scared by this?' But I don't think (Ivers) wanted to give an audience a bipolar feeling and the script walks that fine line really well," Bondurant says, adding that Ivers assisted him in creating a Count who's not quite Count-like in the Stoker style immortalized onscreen by Bela Lugosi.

"I knew they wanted to veer away from that stereotype, and his first line is 'Good evening.' How can you not want to give it that Eastern European, 'Gut eeeeveeeening' thing? But David said, 'You're Dracula, you've got ultimate powers and you're going into a room with a bunch of people who don't know you're a vampire, so be yourself.' "

Just assigning the lead to Bondurant -- who leapt at it, describing his casting in other non-UNLV productions as a male "spineless ingenue" -- contemporizes the count into a more '"Twilight"-ized character. "Jordan is this young, charming, handsome actor who fits the mold with the current (vampires)," Hubbard says. "It's going to be quite appealing to the current audience."

Gothic ambience will be aided by haunting sound and lighting effects -- including sudden blackouts and The Drac's ability to produce fire -- and especially a grand-scale set with what Ivers calls a "Baron Munchhausen feel." Emphasizing an industrialized, retrofitted look known as "steam punk," it's peppered with vanishing bookcases, trick doors and panels, and a massive glass canopy -- plus a crypt that rises from the stage.

Oh, and a modest costuming factor: a sweeping cape with a "Star Wars"-esque collar protruding from the back of Bondurant's head. "It's kind of hard to work the cape," he says, "but wow, when you exit a room and swoop that thing around, it's true sometimes that clothes make the man."

And yes, Bondurant is looking forward to simulating (we hope he's simulating, anyway) Dracula's infamous feeding habits. "There's a buildup to it. He gets caught a couple times before he can actually suck some blood and he gets antsy. But there's a big moment where he gets to, and that's where I hope the comedy can take a backseat and you can thrill the audience."

Funny Dracula? HAAAAAAAAAA!

Frightening Dracula? AAAAAAAAAAH!

(Echo, echo, echo, echo, echo ...)

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@review journal.com or 702-383-0256.