If there is one show you need to see, especially during the Halloween season, it is “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” playing at New World Stages (W. 50th Street).
This hilarious 90-minute take on the story of Dracula is written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen with direction by Greenberg. The company’s five actors are absolutely hysterical, great at playing multiple roles, and will have you bitten with laughter from the opening number to the end.
African American Jordan Boatman plays Lucy, Dracula’s love interest, along with other characters. Boatman sports a British accent and, along with her fellow company members, is an absolute delight. Some of her previous productions have included “The Nineties,” “Medea,” and “Murder on the Orient Express.” Her film/TV work has included “Rob Peace,” “Bull,” “The Good Fight,” and “The Path.”
After seeing Boatman in action, you will know that the path she is on is one of success. She has a fresh, natural presence on stage and is an absolute joy to watch as she and her fellow cast members—Arnie Burton, James Daly, Ellen Harvey, and Andrew Keenan-Bolger—entertain you with the wackiness and zany energy of this funny haunt.
Boatman recently spoke with the AmNews to talk about the show.
AmNews: What did you think when you first saw the script for “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors”?
JB: I thought it was very funny. I thought it was hilarious. I auditioned for “Dracula” as you do with so many things these days: through a self-tape…My best friend…graciously helped me with the self-tape, and she and I were laughing during the audition.
I thought it was funny, smart, and clever, the way that they tell their jokes and they intertwine modern references to a play that takes place in 1827. When you think about Dracula, this is not what I would have thought, so I was surprised.
I love this type of comedy, I’m a huge Gene Wilder fan—this is right up my alley. And my dad is a big fan of that, so I watched a lot of these types of movies growing up. I could hear and feel the way this was going to come out, so I was shocked and really excited to be a part of it when I saw the script.
AmNews: How did you approach the role of Lucy and the others that you play, and how did you develop the British accent for Lucy?
JB: In a few different ways. Specifically, with Lucy, I really wanted—as funny as the show is and as crazy, silly, and hectic, and us running around doing a million things at once—[was for] Lucy to be a person, to be grounded and have relationships, hopes, dreams, and desires. I wanted it to be something you could recognize. And I think that that is in there.
One of the first things that Gordon, our director, said to us when we started [that] was as much as this is a comedy, I also want there to be a story. I want there to be people up on the stage. I spent a lot of time with this script and with Lucy, I just went through and filled in details of who she might be.
I think that relationships ground people, so what does it look like when she’s thinking about her fiancé Jonathan, how is her relationship between her and her older sister that she is the caretaker for, how does that develop?
I like doing accents, so the opportunity to do a British accent all these months—I jumped into it. I spent a lot of time sitting in the park, talking to myself with a British accent. Hopefully not looking crazy. I watched a lot of movies for the accent.
Lucy is prim and proper, but what else is she? Back in those days, she was lucky to be educated at Oxford.
My other characters come in, they are not there for a long time, but they come in good and strong.
AmNews: Where are you from?
JB: I’m from Los Angeles, but I grew up in Westchester [outside] New York.
AmNews: What did your family think about you becoming an actress?
JB: My dad is an actor—Michael Boatman.
AmNews: Michael Boatman as in “Law & Order: SVU”?
JB: Yes, “Law & Order: SVU,” “Spin City,” “The Good Fight.” So, I saw it growing up. I don’t think my family was surprised (that) this is what I wanted to do—I said that since I was very young. My mom is an attorney and having been married to an actor for all these years and gone through those steps with him; I think she has a good perspective on it as well. Their perspective was, “Okay, you want to be an actor. If there is anything else, anything else you would like to do, please do that! But if not, then we’ll support you with it.”
I think that’s good advice. I would say it to my child as well, because this is a hard business and any parent would want to protect their child from it. They knew it was falling on deaf ears. I did theater all through middle school and high school, I was the co-president of my drama club in high school, so they knew which road they were walking down. They have beautifully supported me in this.
AmNews: You all seem to be having a great time on the stage. How do you keep up that level of energy for the [whole] 90 minutes?
JB: I like to say it’s a train; you just got to get on. And once you get on, you just keep moving because the show takes you with it.
The five of us are having a great time. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by these talented, amazing people, who are also just kind and lovely. We have fun with each other on and off stage, so it’s just trying to keep up with them and trying to tell the story and it takes you away, you get caught up. You’re running around backstage—there are so many quick changes, entrances and exits, and it keeps the blood pressure up and you’re running, but it’s an exciting story. It’s exciting just to be on stage and be a part of it, coffins are coming out of one side of the stage and there’s lightning.
Sometimes I come out of a show with more energy than I came into it with. I’m always excited to get to do the show. It’s a hard show to do and it’s a lot of energy to exert for 90 minutes, especially on the weekends when we have two shows. I find even when I come in and think I’m tired, I don’t know how I’m going to do this one, those lights come up and you say “Good evening,” people are excited and you can feel the energy from the audience. When the audience is with us and engaged, that helps us, too. It makes it that much more exciting to just go through it because we feel that you guys are going through it with us.
AmNews: This play is so wild and crazy, what do you hope the audience will experience when they come to see it?
JB: A good time. I am a lover of theater and I think there is something so specific about a group of people being in a room together and experiencing a moment together, and I don’t think you can get that anywhere else.
The joy of this play is that you get to come in and see people living out their crazy, fantastical lives in front of you. I hope audiences can really come in and embrace it, jump in, have a good time, fully commit—and we will, too. I want the audience to experience just the feeling of unabashed joy and silliness.
There’s a beautiful story as well, of Lucy and Jonathan, and I love the story of Dracula and what he’s going through. You can get to know their stories and have a few laughs. Come with a friend and talk about it all night. Come, get engaged, leave your worries at the door for 90 minutes, and come have a good time with us.
AmNews: You have done plays, TV, and films. What is the allure of doing live theater compared to TV and films?
JB: I love TV and film because that gives you such beautiful details of a story, but theater—there’s something about being in a room with someone right now and you are getting the story straight from the source.
As an actor, I think it’s exciting to develop a character and grow with that character. With TV/film, you rehearse, and you do it, and it’s done. With theater, I’ve been playing Lucy for a little over a month and I’ve got a few more months with her, and we grow and change as people every month, and so will she.
I find [with] every play that I do, my knowledge, my understanding, and my feelings about my characters grow because I get to know them better. I love the rehearsal process of live theater and just getting to build this world. That’s part of the allure for the actors, designers, and the director: We all put in our piece and build this world and get to get up on the stage and say how did we do, do you like it, and invite people in with us. That’s always exciting. With every audience, something new happens.
AmNews: This play has a lot of sexual tension and there is passion on stage between women and men, and men and men. How much fun is it to be a part of a production with these elements?
JB: It’s so much fun! I rush to work every day. Everyone is so wonderful and we love to have a good time together, so it’s silliness and lovely. In the show, I’m part of a love triangle and it’s a lot of fun.
AmNews: What in your UNC School of the Arts education prepared you for this work?
JB: So much from school still influences my process when I’m starting a play. With the accent, in school, I kind of got a structured way to go back to. In school, when I’m playing somebody for six months, I want to have something I can go back to and look at. Once you have the rules, you can live outside of them, but I like to know that the rules are there.
I break down the accent phonetically and that comes from school. After I spent three weeks talking to myself in a British accent, I called one of my professors from school. I told my teacher, Robin Christian McNair, “I need another brain to hear this.” I’m so glad I can call her up. I called Robin before I started rehearsals.
I studied movement in school and that was super-helpful for the character Kitty that I play. I play three other characters besides Lucy and I wanted them to be recognizably different people, and I think my movement training helps with that.
I also play the Driver at the beginning and one of the actors in the opening scene. The biggest thing from school is my developing a practice, before I get in a rehearsal room: What is my work, what am I going to do to build these characters to get to know these people, to make them real people and get them to the stage? How will I go about developing the characters? What is driving my character throughout?
There’s so many things that I learned in four years at UNC. I feel very well equipped to build a person from the script that I’m given and build [a] character into a three-dimensional woman.