How new take on ‘Dracula’ at KCRep flips spooky classic: ‘Sexy & different’

Vanessa Severo hadn’t planned to write a whole new version of “Dracula.”

That is until three years ago, when the Kansas City-based theater artist took her one-woman show about Frida Kahlo to Cincinnati’s Playhouse In the Park. Blake Robison, the theater’s artistic director, mentioned that Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale was in need of an update.

“And I, in all my hubris, said I could do it,” she said recently with a laugh.

So Severo decamped to Colorado with her writing partner, Joanie Schultz. Seven days later, they emerged with what she called a “crappy first draft.”

From there, they polished it, workshopped it and in early 2024, debuted their new “Dracula” in Cincinnati.

Now it’s back home for a seasonally spooky run on the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s Copaken Stage.

How different is it than Bram Stoker’s “Dracula“ as we know it?

Severo says the rewrite retains “the scaffolding of Bram Stoker,” while building out several new storylines — especially for Lucy and Mina, the female characters given such short shrift in 1897.

“I thought, ‘what if we looked through the female lens rather than through Jonathan Harker,’ which is what’s typically done,” she explained. “And that kind of flipped it.”

“Everyone has their own idea of what a vampire can and can’t do,” she added. “I like the Anne Rice avenue. When you’re being fed on by a vampire, your instincts start to change. You start to hear better, colors become brighter.”

“Instead of becoming weaker, which happens in Bram Stoker, what if they end up becoming more powerful?”

This “Dracula” has another gender-bending twist. Van Helsing, the resident vampire expert (who’s traditionally played by a man) is played by Severo herself.

That brings up a whole new set of issues, she says, noting that every one of the characters “has a secret of their own” — including the foreboding figure whose name is on the marquee.

The Dracula that actor Nathan M. Ramsey has crafted for this show leans more toward Blade than Nosferatu, played with a slow burn and plenty of mystique.

Earlier this year, he and Severo worked together in Dallas on a staging of the classic Western, “Shane.” Ramsey, a native of the Bronx, says he sees certain similarities between the two brooding loners.

“I think Dracula has a pretty good grasp on the human condition, because he transcends it, But I think there’s also a loneliness that comes with that. There are a lot of layers to him.“

There are, literally.

Ramsey’s costume (cape, shoes, wig and headwear) is no small project. But it adds fuel to the fire that Severo calls Dracula’s “swagger.”

Since Van Helsing spends considerable time onstage, and the show is crammed with eye-popping stagecraft, the actor/playwright/director is thrilled that Schultz has returned as her co-director.

“I’m a visual person, but Joanie is the all-seeing eye,” Severo grins. “When I’m not in a scene, I step back with her, and we go through it.“

“I think the Rep is so smart to program this in October,” Severo said.

“Why not see something that’s spooky and scary and sexy and different … and just have a good time?””