Come in and you’ll get a taste of original musical theate
For two reasons, Musical Artists Theatre stands apart from other community theater companies around the Bay. First, it’s dedicated to musical theater. Any number of local companies put on musicals at least from time to time; some, such as dinner theaters, deal exclusively in the musical form. But Musical Artists Theatre, whose goal is to produce fresh, original musical theater, makes innovation standard fare.
“There are theaters that specialize in doing new plays, and some theaters that do a few new plays,” says Michael Hulett, Dracula’s director and playwright.
“But think about where you see new musicals — it’s not on Broadway, that’s for sure. It’s hard to find places to stage a new musical nationally, in part because it’s so expensive to put musicals on.”
Musical Artists Theatre is that hard-to-find place.
Some of their shows, like last spring’s Rags to Riches, set against Scott Joplin’s music, have been world premieres. Others, like Dracula, have been produced once or a handful of times before. Shows are chosen in accord with the company’s vision of developing original musicals, showcasing contemporary American works and mounting innovative productions of classics. Some 50 playwrights and composers from around the country have already submitted their original works to Musical Artists Theatre.
Here actors, directors and composers get to break new ground. Which is what Hulett did with Dracula, The Musical.
Musical Artists Theatre is in its second year at the Chesapeake Arts Center in Brooklyn Park, and Dracula, The Musical is its fifth production. (Previous shows include A Christmas Carol, twice, Dreamland and Rags to Riches, a musical set to music by Scott Joplin.) All have been well received, with enthusiastic reviews and box-office receipts that keep the company operating in the black.
With a lush musical score, multi-faceted characters, plenty of humor, dread and suspense and strikingly fine performances by the cast, Dracula, The Musical continues that success. Particular standouts are Peggy Dorsey as Mina, Ruth Hulett as Lucy and Greg Coale as Mr. Renfield. Coale delivered a fabulously warped and anguished madman, and Hulett and Dorsey both demonstrated striking theatrical and musical technique and range playing characters who are far more complex than the average run of musical-theater heroines.
The company fills a need among theater-goers as well as theater-artists. Whether the draw is its past successful shows or Transylvania’s infamous count, a near-capacity crowd filled the 100-person studio theater on the play’s second night. (Some shows, such as the annual A Christmas Carol, play on Chesapeake Arts Center’s full-size proscenium stage, with a seating capacity of 900.) It may help that Musical Artists Theatre’s status as resident theater company at Chesapeake Arts Center helps keep ticket prices low enough — $12 to $15 for Dracula — to bring in new blood in the form of casual theater-goers.
“Welcome to my house. Enter freely and of your own will,” intones Count Dracula. If it’s that or The Matrix at a local cinema for $8, why not take a chance on a live show? The Matrix will still be available on DVD long after this innovative theatrical moment is lost in time.
— April Falcon Doss