Noël Coward theatre, London
Deploying accents and wigs, the Wicked star takes on all Bram Stoker’s characters, but the atmosphere lacks the fever or diabolicism required
A
re people born wicked? asks Ariana Grande’s “good witch” Glinda in Wicked, the musical film co-starring Cynthia Erivo as the green-skinned outsider, Elphaba. Bram Stoker’s classic story of elemental evil knows the answer to that question. Dracula, the Ur-vampire and ultimate outsider of the literary canon, is played by Erivo, along with every other character in this deliciously wicked tale of the blood-sucking count.
Except it’s not deliciously wicked in adapter-director Kip Williams’ stage reinvention. Williams has proven himself a Midas-touched spinner of old stories to new. His one-woman version of The Picture of Dorian Gray was deliriously original. His take on Jean Genet’s The Maids was punk inspired. What has happened here?
