Dracula
Starring: Orson Welles, Elizabeth Fuller, George Colouris, Agnes Moorehead, Martin Gabel, Ray Collins, Karl Swenson
Studio: Mercury Theatre on the Air
Year: July 11, 1938
My Rating: ★★★★★
Available free from The Mercury Theatre on the Air (if you have trouble listening or downloading, you can also listen to it here on YouTube)
The Mercury Theatre on the Air started its short but illustrious life with Dracula by Bram Stoker in July of 1938. Orson Welles could not have chosen a better story to launch this radio theatre to stardom although it would inevitably be War of the Worlds that would keep it famous.
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While I have never actually read Dracula all the way through because it is epistolary, I do know enough about the story to know that, while seriously abridged, this radio version of Dracula is outstanding, to say nothing of spine-chilling. All of the main characters are who they should be, meaning that Lucy and Mina aren't related or even friends, Dr. Seward is not a bumbling old man running a sanitorium, and Jonathan Harker is a poor, traumatized young man who barely escapes Transylvania with his life. Barely. The program even includes the carnage of the ship Demeter, an important element also referenced in the 1979 film version of Dracula starring Frank Langella.
As you're already all well aware, I love Orson Welles' radio plays. Absolutely and with abandon. If I could live in his radio plays, I would, and while Dracula is a haunting story, it is beautifully rendered in this production. The sound effects, the musical score, the performances, everything flawlessly aligns. I cannot praise it enough. I find myself sinking deeper and deeper into the story as it continues, and while there are characters and storylines omitted for the sake of time, it is still exquisite.
Life is made better by Orson Welles and his radio career, and Dracula proves that point.