[1] Though it has never run on Broadway, the author lists it among his most financially successful works, and it is frequently performed near Halloween in regional and community theaters.
[2] Closely following the plot of the novel, the play chronicles Count Dracula's journey to England, his stalking of two young women, and his pursuit and eventual defeat by the heroines' suitors and their associates.
[4] The first section of the play follows Lucy Westenra's search for love while she listens to her best friend, Mina Murray, describe her passion for her fiancé, Jonathan Harker.
During Seward and Lucy's romantic choices and life pursuits, Mina corresponds with her own lover, who has gone on a business trip selling land to a Count Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania.
He closes his eyes for a kiss, during which Lucy planned to drain him of blood, but Van Helsing enters the room, using a crucifix to "kill" her.
When killing Lucy, a Bible carried by the men caught on fire, forming the word "Carfax" in reference to an abbey adjoining Seward's asylum.
She appears safe, but Van Helsing recognizes changes in her personality, implying to him that she too has had contact with the Count Dracula of whom Harker had spoken of in his journal.
The group in London decides to hypnotize Mina in order to allow her Vampiric side to give up Dracula's location.
He kisses Mina, but knowing that Dracula could not be in the presence of anything belonging to God, her human side keeps a piece of holy bread in her mouth... thus causing him to retreat to his coffin, where Van Helsing drives a stake into his heart.
Finally, the play ends with Van Helsing urging himself, the other characters, and the audience to remain vigilant and keep watch for evil in world around them... to know that it exists, and to be ready to defeat it.
As within Bram Stoker's novel, Steven Dietz' version of Dracula draws several interesting contrasts between the antagonist and the other characters of the plot (specifically Van Helsing).
He is isolated in the Carpathian Mountains with few resources left at his disposal to quench the thirst of his Vampiric disease.... and without fresh blood to restrengthen his faculties, he grows weaker and older every day.
Much in the opposite route, Dracula seems to take control of his life and assets (moving to London where he can drain people of blood).
Critical reception of this version of Dracula has been mixed, with some praising Dietz's faithfulness to the source material (compared to the campy adaptations or those which have taken liberties with plot and characters).
[8] Others note that the rapid scene changes and jumbled sequence of events (Harker's initial trip to Transylvania is presented as a series of flashbacks throughout the play) are difficult to follow, and the florid language seems stilted.