Roxy’s Downtown is using the slogan “It’s unorthodox” to advertise its newest production: “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.”
That goes for not only a comic spin on the age-old vampire tale, but the rehearsal process.
Roxy’s artistic director Rick Bumgardner said he asked his cast to memorize the script and skipped the blocking process by sending all five cast members his director’s notes before the first rehearsal.
“They came in ready,” he said. “We’ve had great fun putting it together.”
As a result, cast members are bouncing ideas off each other during rehearsals
“The stupider we can make it the more fun the audience is going to have with it.,” Bumgardner said of “Dracula,” which opens next week and continues through Oct. 12.
Bumgardner said he read the script just before he saw “Comedy of Terrors,” which opened off-Broadway a year ago.
“I thought it was one of the funniest things I had read in a really, really long time,” he said.
Among the humor is jokes that play around with the 1897-time frame, including references to the virtual assistant Siri.