Studio Players: Dracula — Comedy of Terrors

Studio Players is staging *Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors* in Upper Montclair through May 2, with performances continuing this week. (newjerseystage.com) The run spans eight performances across two weekends: April 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, and May 1 and 2. Tickets are being sold through Studio Players’ Box Office site. (studioplayhouse.org) Studio Players describes the show as a comic rewrite of Bram Stoker’s vampire story, built around quick changes, wordplay and broad physical comedy. BroadwayWorld reported the Montclair production is directed by Mead Winters. (studioplayhouse.org; broadwayworld.com) The script is part of a recent stage trend that turns familiar horror titles into farce instead of gothic suspense. New Jersey Stage’s 2023 coverage of a Surflight Theatre production called the play a 90-minute, gender-bending, quick-changing comedy. (newjerseystage.com) That approach fits Studio Players’ current season, which also lists Shakespeare’s *Othello* as a one-night reading on April 26 and *Much Ado About Nothing* for July. The company says it has been producing theater since 1937. (studioplayhouse.org; studioplayhouse.org) The production is also part of a busy late-April calendar for New Jersey theater groups. New Jersey Stage included the show in its statewide roundup of events for April 21 through April 27. (newjerseystage.com) For audiences in North Jersey, the pitch is simple: a local company is playing Dracula for laughs, and the remaining performances run into the first weekend of May. (newjerseystage.com; studioplayhouse.org)