photo by Tim Fuller

Count Dracula (Christopher James Stevens) thinks Lucy ( Susana Cordon) would be a tasty morsel, once they have been properly introduced.. 

On the Arizona Theatre Company stage of “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” women have been cast in some men's roles to present a lighter side of the dark vampire tale, while flamboyant men play women larger than life itself. Altogether they create hilarious scenes filled with chaotic special effects.

Clearly, this Dracula for 2026 has come a long way from your great- grandfather's Dracula, played 100 years ago by suave Bela Lugosi in a crisp tuxedo.

Broadway regulars Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen co-wrote the lively “Terrors” script. In the Tucson production Greenberg is also directing a cast of five through a cascade of incredibly complicated pratfalls so precisely timed they almost feel choreographed. Tijana Bjelajac is the imaginative scenic designer who keeps it all contained on a single stage.

An impressively buff Christopher James Stevens plays the outlandishly re-imagined Count thriving on the dark side, but after that the remaining casting is gender free. Together the five of them play more than a dozen roles. Stevens also slips in some quick reflections on that saucy transvestite from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

Paul Vogt covers all the bases as Mina the larger than life daughter of Jean Van Helsing and also as JeanVan Helsing himself. Playing Mina's lovely sister Lucy and several others is delightful Susana Cordon.

As the intrepid real estate agent and vampire slayer, and others, is James Romney who makes an impressive character transformation from big nerd to convincing hero. Kelly Bashar wraps it up as the woeful Renfield and others.

It is helpful in keeping up with the story line for this breezy adaptation of the Count Dracula Legend that all the characters are known by their traditional names from Bram Stoker's Gothic classic. Also that the settings are in Whitby, London and Transylvania, circa 1897.

Yet as playwrights, Greenberg and Rosen keep an unabashed enthusiasm for American humor throughout, going full bore from start to finish, never pausing to take a breath. When you think there can't possibly be more, the players call upon a new pantheon of pop culture superstars to remind us there is a whole fresh century out there, wanting to see more of the Count.

"Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” runs through May 16 with performances at various times Tuesdays through Sundays in the downtown Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. For details and reservations visit atc.org or phone 833-ATC-SEAT.

As a theatrical performance, the conversations between turbulent Marjorie and mechanical Walter are brilliantly performed. Playwright Jordan Harrison has constructed “Marjorie Prime” so cleverly, and director Christopher Johnson puts so much attention to the most subtle details, we come away believing reality can indeed exist in many shades of imagination.

Completing the cast are Carley Elizabeth Preston and Matt Walley as Marjorie's tense daughter Tess and her goodhearted husband Jon. Tess is equally as mercurial as her mom in abrupt mood shifts. Slipping into middle age Tess faces her own dystopia that she never had a warm relationship with her mother.

Every conversation between the two always ends in a bickering, sputtering argument. For both women, family life exists more in their head than in their hearts. In one series of short bursts, Preston brilliantly leaps from crisis conclusion to crisis combustion.

So we in the audience are left to ponder, does it really matter what happened in the past? Or does what we remember become more important than what actually happened?

ing in various combinations deliver one intense rendition after another filled with their personal hopes for some relief, offering 27 blues flavored pieces straight from the 1930s gut of Depression Era struggles in gritty cities, nearly 100 years ago.

Award winning Sheldon Epps first conceived of this revue in 1980, opening a successful Broadway run in 1982, followed by an equally popular London production in 1987.

Epps found ways to blend the music of such established composers as Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer with the popular blues success of marque names like Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Bessie Smith and others.

From the evergreen favorites “Lush Life” and “Stompin' at the Savoy” to the sly double entendre of “Take Me For A Buggy Ride” to the equally defiant “Wild Women Don't Have the Blues,” no heart left wanting goes unexamined.

Think of this indigo journey as a musical confessional so convincing in its search for sweet release, the capacity audience on opening night at the downtown Temple of Music and Art jumped to its feet in a standing ovation of the joyful discovery to learn what is meant by making it hurt so good.

This remarkable metaphor of a religious experience is carried out in the soaring stage design of Edward E. Haynes Jr. A towering church-like arc is filled with patterned columns that could also represent endless towers of faceless apartment buildings in a shadowy urban setting.

Included in the stage design are setups representing four generic apartments flaunting their ordinariness in cold concern for these star-crossed performers.

Each is given a descriptive title rather than a name. They are: The Lady from the Road (Roz White), The Woman of the World (April Nixon), The Girl with a Date (Camryn Hamm) and The Man in the Saloon (Darryl Reuben Hall). As the titles imply, each of these women represents all women at different stages in their lives.

The man, presumably, stands for all men who end up by themselves in a bar.

There is no dialogue or plot per se but each song is self-contained, telling its own story, adding another chapter to the challenging life of being female.

“Blues in the Night” runs through Feb. 15, with performances at various times Tuesdays through Sundays in the downtown Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Run time is approximately two hours, including intermission.

Tickets are $33-$113. For additional details and reservations, 833-ATC-SEAT (282-7328) or online, atc.org

Gaslight photo 

Another eager audience settles into the pine paneled theater to start their new  year with comic western history and free popcorn.

This Gaslight Theatre classic has returned in a new production that flaunts its soaring wiles across a curtained stage of high notes and evil intentions.