“Dracula,” the blockbuster theatrical ballet, is sure to bring thrills, chills and fangs to Oklahoma City when it is performed next month at the Civic Center Music Hall.Tulsa Ballet will present the performances at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 25.
The ballet is set to the music of Franz Liszt in an arrangement by John Lanchberry.
Hailed by a critic for the New York Times, the ballet “features vampire brides who fly through the air, a ghastly coach that careens on and off stage and a magnificent, 23 ft. long cape in which Dracula ensnares his victims.”
A critic for Dance magazine pronounced the work as “a ‘Dracula’ to die for,” calling it the last word on magnificent spectacle.
“ ‘Dracula’ gives new life to an old art form,” a critic for the Chicago Tribune said.
“The sets, costumes and lighting are not just lavish,” Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times wrote, “but exquisitely beautiful and atmospheric.
“For once, $1 million, the cost of ‘Dracula,’ looks like a million.”
“Sumptuously imaginative scenery,” Clive Barnes (a critic for the New York Post) said, calling the production “magnificently and spookily spectacular.”
“The moody ambience of the stage actually drew spontaneous applause from the audience for the set,” it was said by a critic for the Sunday World of London.
The Oklahoma City performances will follow premiere productions in Texas, and has been presented in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Toronto, Ft. Lauderdale and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
Choreographer Ben Stevenson worked with Tulsa Ballet last year to set the full-length work, and he will return in October for the Oklahoma City performances.
