Leslie O’Carroll, Sean Scrutchins, Zach Kononov, Adriane Leigh Robinson in Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. Photo by Amanda Tipton Photography

In Dracula, the 19th-century novel by Bram Stoker, the eponymous count travels from Transylvania to the English town of Whitby. It’s a long trip (more than 1,200 miles as the bat flies), but not quite as long as the journey that’s taken Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors from New York City to its six-month run at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

To understand the count’s 1,600-mile trek from off-Broadway to the Garner Galleria, I spoke with Alicia Bruce, the Denver Center’s general manager for Broadway and Cabaret and the lead producer of Dracula. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What makes a show a good fit for the Garner Galleria as opposed to the DCPA’s other theatres?

The shows we do in the Galleria tend to be a little bit lighter, a little bit more farcical. Some of that madcap where you’ve got five actors playing 75 characters. It’s the quirkier, smaller, off-Broadway shows that you may see if you’re in New York — which is where shows like Dracula and The Other Josh Cohen really got started.

How did Dracula end up on your radar?

I was aware of it from keeping an eye on what’s happening Off-Broadway. I actually wasn’t able to see it in New York, but our Executive Director, John Ekeberg, was able to see it. He came back and said, “I think it might be a fun project; you should reach out to the producers and see if you can get any material.”

I started talking to the Off-Broadway producing team about what it might look like to partner with them to get some set and costume and prop rentals, and what it might look like to bring in [director] Gordon Greenberg, who along with Steve Rosen was one of the authors of the show. I think he said this might be his eighth production that he’s put up of Dracula. He’s done New York; they produced it at the Old Globe; they did a run over in London.

Since you’d never seen the show yourself, it sounds kind of like buying a house sight unseen. Was that nerve-racking?

I think it’s that way with any show that you are producing. The nice thing was, because we did have the partnership with the original team, we sort of had the blueprints of the house. We knew what Gordon’s production most likely was going to look like and feel like. We knew the costumes were going to be beautiful and kind of elaborate for what is such a small show. Unlike other shows that we’ve done, where we’re maybe just licensing the show and then creating it completely ourselves, this had a little more structure to it.

What are the main steps from title selection to opening night?

The first one is always getting licensing, making sure that the show’s available, that another theatre hasn’t already scooped it up.

The next big hurdle is putting together the creative team. Fortunately, this show kind of came packaged — we knew we wanted to work with Gordon as the Director, and he had his folks that he’s worked with on Dracula before. So we enlisted the original Scenic Designer to take the New York production and kind of squash it down to fit in our theatre. We worked with the original Costume Designer; we worked with the original Sound Designer, who also did a lot of original music for the show.

In addition to all the folks who worked on the New York team, we are so blessed to have a wealth of talented designers and craftspeople in Denver in our own Denver Center Theatre Company. So we were able to work with our resident Director of Scenic Design, our resident Lighting Designer, our wardrobe folks, our props team.

The next step after that is casting. We do our local auditions; it’s really important to us to be able to highlight local talent. And then the next step is getting everything created. You’ve got your designers in place; you’ve got your cast in place — now it’s getting the actual pieces built. This was a little bit of a hybrid in that we rented the costumes and props from the original production. But the scenic element from the New York space didn’t fit in our theatre, so our amazing shops here at the Denver Center actually re-created the set for us.

Then it’s going into rehearsals and getting the show up on its feet.

What’s the most rewarding part of the process?

I really enjoy the first day of rehearsal. It’s the first time that you get everyone in the room. It’s the first time people are seeing the designs, the costume sketches, the scenic design. There’s just so much possibility.

And what are your personal feelings toward vampires?

I think they’re for year-round. You should have vampires at Christmas; you should have vampires at Thanksgiving; you should have vampires at Easter. There’s always room for vampires.

DETAILS
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors
Now – May 10, 2026 • Garner Galleria Theatre
Tickets