The vampire thriller play, “Dracula,” by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, premieres at Three Notch Theatre in Lexington Park on Oct. 25 and runs through November 10.

This Dracula version is an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire story of 1897. The Hamilton Deane 1924 English stage play was revised for American audiences in 1927 by John Balderston, making it the first adaptation of the novel authorized by Stoker’s widow. The 1927 Broadway production starred Bela Lugosi, who went on to make a career out of his role.

The play was again revised in 1977 starring Frank Langella on Broadway with sets and costumes by Edward Gorey. It won Tony Awards for Best Revival and for Best Costume Design. Subsequent Broadway actors to inhabit the title role included Raul Julia. Frank Langella reprised his role in the 1979 film version which also starred Kate Nelligan as Lucy and which bore practically no resemblance to the first-class Deane-Balderston script.  (Now, keep in mind that the Frank Langella of Dracula was not the aging Frank Langella of the Nixon movie – this was the young, heartthrob Frank Langella who made a deliciously wicked and sexy Dracula).

I love the Dracula legend. Among my favorite books are copies of the original Bram Stoker novel, the annotated version of Dracula (which took me a full three months to read as I devoured every single fascinating annotation), In Search of Dracula by McNally and Florescu, and The Movie Treasury of Horror Movies – Tales of Terror in the Cinema by Alan G. Frank which features summaries and photos of the numerous movie versions of the Dracula story (including the Christopher Lee renditions). And do you remember other fabulous Dracula actors?  What about the truly scary TV version with Jack Palance in the early 70’s? And who could forget the suave Louis Jourdan on the MPT Dracula series in the late 70’s? There also have been actors Gary Oldman, Gerard Butler, John Carradine, Leslie Nielsen, and George Hamilton, along with many others…and we shouldn’t overlook Sesame Street’s “take” on the legend with its Count von Count muppet. And Dracula (at least in films) promises practically to have no end in sight: on October 25, Jonathan Rhys Meyers offers his version of the vampire in NBC’s new series, Dracula.

The story of Dracula was originally based on the real-life character Prince Vlad V of Wallachia, nicknamed “Vlad the Impaler.” His father’s name was Dracul (“the Devil”); Dracula thus means “son of the Devil”. The first major film version of the Dracula creature was Nosferatu from 1921 Germany.

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