Breaking Baz: ‘Wicked's Cynthia Erivo Will Sink Her Teeth Into 23 Roles For ‘Dracula' In London's West End
Stoker's gothic shocker explores the dark corners of Victorian-age sexuality, fear and desire. The tale, first published in 1897, is both alluring and horrifying, full of terrifying and dreamlike imagery.
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Dracula, adapted and directed by Kip Williams, marks Oscar-nominated Erivo's return to the stage for the first time since her Tony Award-winning role as Celie in The Color Purple, which she starred in for two years in New York before exiting in January 2017. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art-trained artist played Celie in London, and honed her craft in several plays and musicals in the UK before relocating to the U.S.
The Sydney Theatre Company production of Dracula will play the Cameron Mackintosh-owned Noel Coward Theatre for a limited 16-week engagement February 4-May 31, 2026.
Michael Cassel, producer and CEO of Australia's Michael Cassel Group, and Adam Kenwright, a top London and Broadway producer and ace international marketing guru, reunite to produce the STC production as they did with Dorian Gray, which they took to London's Theatre Royal Haymarket and the Music Box, where it runs until June 29.
Confirming the Dracula news exclusively to Deadline, Cassel says 'the stars have aligned and we've got an amazing actor in Cynthia to join us.'
The initial approach to Erivo was made nine months ago in the middle of the hectic global promotional tour for Wicked.
Buoyed by Erivo's interest, Cassel and Kenwright moved with appropriate supernatural speed to hook up the London-born star with Williams. He showed her archival video of the STC production of Dracula that played Sydney's Roslyn Packer Theatre for four weeks last year with Aussie actress Zahra Newman playing the nocturnal fiend.
Williams spoke with Erivo about what he terms 'cine-theatre,' where actors interact with live and pre-recorded video feeds.
Later, Erivo saw Snook's performance, now Tony-nominated, at the Music Box and visited with her afterwards. Obviously, that show's vastly different from Dracula, but it enabled Erivo to envision how Williams stages his interactive work with camera operators moving with balletic grace across the stage as an artist performs multiple roles.
'She has really spent most of her time with Kip just talking through the inspiration and the dramaturgy of it all. For them to connect in that way has been important for them because this is a show that they go and create together,' Cassel explains during a call from Melbourne, where he's been overseeing a production of the musical Beetlejuice at the city's Regent Theatre.
Cassel points out that the West End's Dracula will not 'be a blueprint' of the Sydney version. 'I think what's so exciting, I think for her, and for us, while we know what the story is, they get to go and create this role in the rehearsal room in London together, and that was very appealing to Cynthia to put her own interpretation on the role and explore that with Kip.'
The list of 23 characters that Erivo will perform include the fanged Count Dracula, who sustains life by sucking the blood of the living; Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified solicitor who travels to to meet his new client who resides in a castle nestled in the remote Transylvanian mountains; Mina Murray, Harker's fiancée; her friend Lucy Westenra; and Professor Van Hesling, vampire hunter and expert in occult lore.
To pull off all those and other roles 'you need great actors,' says Cassel, 'and we just couldn't be happier with Cynthia leading the charge.'
Wicked fans will no doubt be elated to learn that Erivo will sing in Dracula, but just one song.
The original piece in the show is composed by Clemence Williams, who, as it happens, has been nominated for a Tony Award for sound design for The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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Cassel was quick to state that Dracula's 'a play not a musical, but there is an original song in it' that will be performed towards the end of the 1 hour, 50 minute show.
Wicked: For Good, part two of director Jon M. Chu's screen adaptation of the Broadway hit musical, opens November 21, while rehearsals for Dracula start late December.
However, with Dracula performances beginning February 4, Cassel and Kenwright are cognizant of the fact that Erivo may need to skip off to one or two awards shows and are making provision in the show's performance schedule should that eventually arise.
'We're taking that into account,' Cassel adds, 'putting all those pieces in place so that Cynthia can be a part of everything else that's going on in her life — we'll build that in.'
'Again why we're just so thrilled Cynthia has agreed to choose this as a project she really wants to be a part of. When you look at Sarah as well, these actors have these amazing experiences on film or television, but the draw to the theatre, and indeed to do something that is so challenging, I think it's testament to the caliber as actors that these individuals are. It's challenging what they're being asked to do. It's a world apart from what Cynthia's been doing recently, and she can go and find that character and be challenged night in, night out as all good actors are in front of a live audience and I think that's really thrilling.'
Erivo has several other projects ahead of Dracula. They include hosting the 78th Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 8. Following that, she will star alongside Teo Yoo (Past Lives) and Isabel May (1883) in director Takashi Doscher's action thriller Karoshi for 87Eleven and Lionsgate.
There are other movies in Erivo's diary, plus taking on the role of Jesus in a concert version of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl in early August.
When Stoker published his epistolary novel, critics saw it as a reflection of aspects of Victoria-era society. Cassel nods while observing that Williams in his adaptation delves 'much more much into the metaphorical power of Dracula and reorienting the psychological battle between fear, desire and denial, and I think that's much more resonant now, that's my view.
'It's got a great contemporary lens on it.'
Cassel and Kenwright refuse to talk about further life for Dracula with Erivo after the Noel Coward Theatre. Broadway has not been mentioned, yet.
'All of our focus is on the West End and to make that a success and welcome Cynthia into the world of Dracula,' says Cassel.
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