In Cynthia Erivo’s ‘Dracula,’ There’s Mirth Amid the Horror

At the Noël Coward Theater in London, Cynthia Erivo appears in a sports tank top and pants, a blank sartorial canvas that is transformed with wigs and period garb. A black-clad camera crew records her every move and projects it on a vast screen; real-time footage is spliced with recorded clips so we often see two, sometimes three or four, Erivos at once.

Over two hours she plays 23 roles in Kip Williams’s new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, running through May 30. The solo format is a demanding test, and Erivo — a London-born performer whose recent profile includes Broadway’s The Color Purple and two Wicked films — largely holds her own despite a few first-night line fluffs.

This is not a blood-and-gore Dracula: grislier moments are relayed through narration, and the production’s timbre at times leans toward vaudeville rather than shock, with only a brief snippet of song.

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