Big Live’s touring production of Dracula at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre is a dramatic tale of lost love, revenge — and, of course, vampires.
Choreographed by company’s cofounder and artistic director Joel Burke, the production features dancers from Mariinsky, English National, Stuttgart and Australian ballets and is set to music by Bach, Rachmaninov, Mozart, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns and Debussy amid a score by composer Jason Fernandez.
While distinct from the Bram Stoker novel that inspired it, the ballet’s narrative retains the gothic ambience of the original, chronicling the tale of newlyweds Jonathan and Mina as they travel to Transylvania for a fateful honeymoon trip.
Mariinsky Ballet alumnus Ervin Zagidullin is a convincing Dracula, portraying the titular character’s anguish and later malevolence as the death of his wife transforms him into a vicious killer. Burke’s choreography plays to Zagidullin’s strengths, interspersing the latter’s variations with sequences of endless turns a la seconde.
Burke himself and Abbey Hansen as Jonathan and Mina Harker are compelling as the lead couple — the pair particularly dazzles in Scene 3’s pas de deux, punctuated with daring lifts and performed with abandon.
Four ghosts, portrayed by Janae Kerr, Giselle Osborne, Alyssa Park and Mia Zanardo, showcase academic technique and eerie stage presence in smooth traveling bourrées as they worked their onstage magic in service of Dracula’s evil schemes.
The production design is notable: the standout castle set features soaring ceilings and a focal staircase. There was a moment in Scene 3 where pale moonlight spills through the hall’s central glass window, bathing the main couple in a serene glow. The stage is almost always filled with a thin layer of dry ice, adding to the surreal atmosphere. At one point in Act 2, character descends from the top of the stage, suspended from a wire.
While the range of musical accompaniment is a selling point, it at times is on the nose: Dracula’s entrance post-transformation to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is one example. The transitions between pieces from different musical periods were also jarring at times.
The company has delivered a crowd pleaser.
Big Live’s “Dracula” runs through July 12 at Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. The final performance is sold out. Visit us.atgtickets.com.
