Cynthia Erivo is going from playing a witch in Wicked to taking on the role of Count Dracula — as well as Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker and 20 other Bram Stoker characters.
Erivo is to star in a stage adaptation of Stoker’s 1897 gothic horror, taking on all 23 roles, and becoming the latest big name to attempt one of the most Herculean of artistic feats: the one-woman West End show.
The 38-year-old’s return to the London stage comes after a decade-long blitz through Broadway and Hollywood, where she secured three Oscar nominations, a Tony, Emmy and Grammy.
Erivo, from south London, said on Tuesday that “returning to the stage feels like a homecoming, one that I’ve been craving for a long time”.
The producers of the stage adaptation of Dracula have admitted, however, that its planned run in London from February next year — in the middle of the film awards season — may mean Erivo has to miss the occasional night to pick up a prize.
There was no word on who the understudy would be.
Erivo is not the first to take on the challenge of a one-woman show.
Sarah Snook, the Australian actress who played Shiv Roy in Succession, won the Olivier award for best actress last year with her solo performance in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The 37-year-old, who played all 26 characters, spoke afterwards of the challenges of learning a “60,000-word monologue” eight months after giving birth.
Andrew Scott has this year taken his one-man show of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya to a New York stage after a London run and an Olivier Award nomination for best actor.
The Irish actor was described as a “human Swiss army knife” by critics after his portrayal of Vanya and eight other characters.
Erivo said on Tuesday that the“prospect of doing this show scares me”, adding that she knew it would be a “huge challenge … and will ask everything of me”.
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She added: “It’s a rare gift for an actor to inhabit so many voices and perspectives in one piece.”
Erivo made her name on stage and starred in the musicals Sister Act and The Color Purple before breaking into Hollywood with acclaimed performances in Widows and Harriet. Her performance as the abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the latter drew two Oscar nominations; one for best actress and the other for original song for a score she co-wrote and performed in the film.
Her second acting nomination at the Oscars came this year for her lead role as Elphaba in Wicked, the sequel to which — again starring Erivo and Ariana Grande as Glinda — is due to be released in November.
After the promotional tour for Wicked: For Good, Erivo will be straight into rehearsals for Dracula, its producers said.
Erivo, who has recently announced a new studio album and has been working on a forthcoming film, Children of Blood and Bone, said she had been longing to return to the stage.
“To do so with a story as rich, complex, and haunting as Dracula offers a beautiful opportunity to delve into character, into myth, and into the heart of what makes us human,” she said.
Erivo praised the “thrilling, terrifying, and deeply resonant” vision of Kip Williams, who is adapting and directing Dracula.
Williams, who also adapted The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Snook, said there were many “iconic characters” in Dracula for Erivo to bring to life.
He said the stage production would expand “upon Stoker’s exploration of the tension between fear and desire, offering a contemporary perspective on the vampire as a monster that lurks not beyond, but within”.
