I love the book (there’s a reason I started this Community’s Dracula bookclub!) but it does drag at times. I’ve also seen many of the movies, seen it in ballet, seen one straight play adaptation, and played in the pit of the Frank Wildhorn musical (as well as watched many online recordings of usually not very good quality). The straight play was my favourite adaptation, and definitely the most faithful; I wish they had filmed it and sold DVDs/digital downloads, tbh. The musical is my second pick because it’s pretty faithful even if it amps up the romance, and the amount of drama you get is awesome. I definitely prefer the book to any of the film adaptations I’ve seen though.
Oh yeah. I mean it’s public domain, so anyone can adapt it, so there have been a lot of adaptations.
There are at least 4 or 5 musical adaptations that I’m aware of (though Wildhorn’s is by far the most successful, even if it’s not very successful itself—Wildhorn, a West End one that was written but never produced, at least one comedic one, and a Spanish-language one).
The straight-play I saw was locally-produced by a fairly successful (but certainly not huge) acting troupe that does tours around Australia. Unrelated to that, last year there was a play with just a single actor playing all roles (she had previously done single-actor versions of Dorian Gray and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) in Australia, and just within the last month the UK saw an all-female adaptation.
Then there’s films, where as of 2019 there were at least 12 adaptations that stuck close enough to the book to be the subject of this comparison. (And add at least one more for 2024’s Nosferatu.)
It’s been done in all sorts of other media. The ballet I mentioned I’ve seen used music from the 1979 film composed by John Williams, but it’s been in ballet many times.
One thing I’m surprised I’ve never seen is a film adaptation as a 21st century found-footage film. As you know, but anyone else in here who hasn’t actually read it may not, book is an epistolary novel. Basically the literary equivalent of a found-footage film (a la Paranormal Activity or the Blair Witch Project), made up of letters, diary entries, transcribed phonograph recordings, and cuttings from newspapers. It would be such a natural adaptation to use shaky handheld mobile phone film.
I love the book (there’s a reason I started this Community’s Dracula bookclub!) but it does drag at times. I’ve also seen many of the movies, seen it in ballet, seen one straight play adaptation, and played in the pit of the Frank Wildhorn musical (as well as watched many online recordings of usually not very good quality). The straight play was my favourite adaptation, and definitely the most faithful; I wish they had filmed it and sold DVDs/digital downloads, tbh. The musical is my second pick because it’s pretty faithful even if it amps up the romance, and the amount of drama you get is awesome. I definitely prefer the book to any of the film adaptations I’ve seen though.
I read the first book and was both:
Then I realized I am an idiot.
Wait why were you an idiot?
Did not know there were that many adaptations !
Oh yeah. I mean it’s public domain, so anyone can adapt it, so there have been a lot of adaptations.
There are at least 4 or 5 musical adaptations that I’m aware of (though Wildhorn’s is by far the most successful, even if it’s not very successful itself—Wildhorn, a West End one that was written but never produced, at least one comedic one, and a Spanish-language one).
The straight-play I saw was locally-produced by a fairly successful (but certainly not huge) acting troupe that does tours around Australia. Unrelated to that, last year there was a play with just a single actor playing all roles (she had previously done single-actor versions of Dorian Gray and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) in Australia, and just within the last month the UK saw an all-female adaptation.
Then there’s films, where as of 2019 there were at least 12 adaptations that stuck close enough to the book to be the subject of this comparison. (And add at least one more for 2024’s Nosferatu.)
It’s been done in all sorts of other media. The ballet I mentioned I’ve seen used music from the 1979 film composed by John Williams, but it’s been in ballet many times.
One thing I’m surprised I’ve never seen is a film adaptation as a 21st century found-footage film. As you know, but anyone else in here who hasn’t actually read it may not, book is an epistolary novel. Basically the literary equivalent of a found-footage film (a la Paranormal Activity or the Blair Witch Project), made up of letters, diary entries, transcribed phonograph recordings, and cuttings from newspapers. It would be such a natural adaptation to use shaky handheld mobile phone film.