★★★★

“the air is thick with mischief and the sense of fun that this insanely talented troupe bring to the stage is enough to win us over”

‘Transsexual Transylvaniaaa-a-a!’ comes to mind the moment James Daly’s lace-and-leather-clad, midriff-baring Dracula makes his flamboyant entrance onto the stage. But it’s a riff that’s half a century old. So the writers, Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, need something more saucy to dollop onto the old frank-n-furter. It’s safe to say, thankfully, that they’ve dished up the magic ingredients – hundreds and thousands of them in fact, sacrilegiously scattered all over Bram Stoker’s gothic masterpiece. It’s the theatrical equivalent of popping candy, that fizzles in your mouth and leaves you giggling with effervescent joy. Chuck in some camp, gender-swapping, costume-changing, character-bending humour; a touch of gore, and rapid-fire one-liners and you eventually arrive at the imperfect feast that is “Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors”. Faithful(ish) to Bram Stoker’s original, it still takes succulent chunks of the story’s flesh and regurgitates it dripping with frivolity. As the writers themselves have said of the novel: ‘anything that takes itself that seriously is a prime target for satire’.

As the houselights fade, we are plunged into a cacophony of darkness and noise, rather like entering a ghost train at a fairground. Tijana Bjelajac’s shadowy set reflects this kind of clubland-meets-circus atmosphere, while Tristan Raine’s costumes blend Victoriana with novelty, giving hints of steampunk. Clever use of props and puppets add to the magic, while the many costume changes are acrobatic feats – one in particular drawing its own round of applause. But the main attraction is the juggling act in which the cast of five play a whole horde of madcap characters.

Little time is spent in Transylvania itself. Jonathan Harker (a wonderfully goofy and uptight Charlie Stemp) rocks up at Dracula’s castle to clinch a lucrative property deal with the count. James Daly’s Dracula is the archetypal image of the narcissistic Rock Star – money and sex on tap but still wanting more. The sexual tension between him and Harker is palpable, until Dracula diverts his bloodthirsty attentions onto Harker’s fiancé, Lucy. By now we are back in Whitby, not exactly the kind of seaside town you have in mind for a queer pilgrimage. Dracula meets his match with the array of kooky individuals he comes up against. Safeena Ladha is headstrong and assertive as Lucy. Her rather downtrodden sister, Mina, is played by Sebastien Torkia, complete with ginger wig and ruffled ballgowns. Dianne Pilkington is their father, Dr. Westfield, who has turned their house into a live-in retreat for society’s oddballs (all played with a vaudevillian hilarity by them all).

You know the story, and how it ends. It’s the treatment that stands out. Co-writer Greenberg also directs, his hand visibly cracking the whip to keep the pace as frenetic as the lunacy. After the initial set-up, however, the humour is relatively conventional. More panto than subversive. The melodrama is kicked to the rafters even if some of the jokes don’t aim quite so high. But the air is thick with mischief and the sense of fun that this insanely talented troupe bring to the stage is enough to win us over. It is all very silly and chaotic, but delivered with precision and comic timing you could die for. But it doesn’t quite draw blood. It is more like a love-bite than a sharp set of fangs puncturing our skin. Then again – that’s probably a good thing. Definitely worth staking out.

SCISSORHANDZ

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★

“The cast are superb across the board and there is an easy camaraderie that adds to the feelgood factor”

It is a bold statement to tag your show with the subtitle ‘A Musical Reinvented’. But there is nothing faint-hearted about Bradley Bredeweg’s reinterpretation of Tim Burton’s classic and gothic fairytale. Direct from Los Angeles, it bursts onto the London stage as though heading for Wembley Arena, but instead took a wrong turn and landed up in the three-hundred-seater, Southwark venue. Edward Scissorhands, the solemn and doleful outsider, has morphed into a rock legend of their own making – if only for a few fleeting seconds before retreating behind the bank of loudspeakers to await rediscovery.

The tale of an outsider trying to ‘fit in’ is an obvious celebration of being different; yet it is hard to maintain the impact of this message when the whole ensemble are complete weirdos anyway. A delightful bunch, nonetheless. Jordan Kai Burnett’s Scissorhands is slightly pushed into the shadows as a result, eclipsed by the eccentrics that surround them. Emma Williams, as Avon Lady Peg who adopts the waif-like Scissorhands, also adopts the role of protagonist with her wonderfully kooky, mad-as-a-hatter portrayal of the American housewife. Neighbours Joyce (Tricia Adele-Turner), Esmerelda (Annabelle Terry) and Helen (Ryan O’Connor) are as maverick and flamboyant as Abby Clarke’s primary-coloured costume design; while Dionne Gipson’s striking, ethereal ‘Inventor’ holds court from on high.

We are never completely emotionally engaged, but are always sucked into the sheer energy and sense of fun with which the performers are swamping the stage. And even if the song list gratuitously breaks the continuity of the story, the numbers are delivered with a powerful virtuosity. Like many juke-box musicals, the choice is hit and miss – some forming a neat and natural segue from the dialogue, whereas others are as isolated from the plot as Scissorhands is from reality. But, boy, there are some belters in there! Annabelle Terry’s ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’ is a standout moment, along with Tricia Adele-Turner’s ‘Bleeding Love’ and Dionne Gipson’s ‘Mad World’. Emma Williams majestically reinvents ‘Creep’ (even though we really feel the song belongs to Scissorhands), and throughout the show, the wall of sound created by musical director Arlene McNaught’s five-piece band threaten to bring the roof down.

It is quite the spectacle, but the nuances of Burton’s original are lost in the mix, just as the quirkiness is occasionally obscured by an earnestness that is shoe-horned in. Rather than reinvented, the musical is relabelled – somewhat superficially like a ‘new-and-improved’, ‘special-offer’ packaging. Overtly establishing in a throwaway line of dialogue the correct pronoun for the lead character merely scratches the surface of the essential issue, while we either want it to dig deeper, or else take it as a given (as it should be).

There is a fair amount of disarray, but we cannot mistake the sheer joyfulness of it. The cast are superb across the board and there is an easy camaraderie that adds to the feelgood factor. The audience feel part of it all, especially when the fourth wall breaks down and boundaries are overstepped. Improvised ad-libs are let loose, often as sharp as the blades of Scissorhands’ make-shift fingers.

“Scissorhandz” is a fun-loving, camp, boisterous show bursting to crash through the walls of its chosen venue. But like Scissorhands themself, is a bit of a chimera – not quite fully formed. Yet there is something special in there, and it is an extraordinary piece of musical theatre. Its message implores us to seek that ‘special something’ within ourselves. Applied to itself, this show could well be onto a winning path to completion.

DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS

Menier Chocolate Factory

★★★★

“the air is thick with mischief and the sense of fun that this insanely talented troupe bring to the stage is enough to win us over”

DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS

Menier Chocolate Factory

Reviewed on 18th March 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Matt Crockett

Previously reviewed at this venue:

DRACULA

DRACULA

DRACULA

SCISSORHANDZ

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★

“The cast are superb across the board and there is an easy camaraderie that adds to the feelgood factor”

SCISSORHANDZ

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 30th January 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Danny Kaan

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

SCISSORHANDZ

SCISSORHANDZ

SCISSORHANDZ