SYNOPSIS
PROLOGUE
A MEDICAL CLASSROM IN AMSTERDAM, 1905
A classroom in a medical school in Amsterdam. The Professor, an old man named Doctor Van Helsing, is giving a course on diseases of the mind. He mentions a friend of his named John Seward, who is working with such diseases. A student recognises the name as having to do with an incident twenty years before, and asks Van Helsing about it. Van Helsing will say nothing, but asks the student to stay after class. The student's father is very ill and Van Helsing questions why the student has not visited him. The student replies that he detests weakness and thus, his father. When the other students have departed, Van Helsing shows the student a collection of journals from twenty years ago ... (Prologue & Overture)
ACT I
LONDON, 1887
The many friends and family of Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray gather to celebrate the couple's engagement (The Engagement Party). Much to Mina's disappointment Jonathan is quickly called away on business to Transylvania to supervise the sale of an estate in London to a wealthy aristocrat in Transylvania (Must You Go?).
TRANSYLVANIA, LATER THAT YEAR
On his way to Castle Dracula, Jonathan passes through a local town at the foot of the mountains. The townspeople warn him of the evil he is about to encounter, but he is determined to carry on dismissing the peasants' fears as mere superstition (Save The Living From The Dead). Jonathan arrives at the Castle. He has noticed some strange things on his journey, but attributes his sense of unease to the superstitions of the local people. He is welcomed by the Count himself, as there appear to be no other people in the house. Alone in his bedroom, he fights off the beginnings of fear (Deeper Darkness), and starts writing a letter to his fiancee, Mina, but cannot finish it.
The Count informs Harker that he has bought a house in London called Carfax, and seeks some advice on how to ship materials to England without a single solicitor knowing all his affairs. Slowly, his limits on Harker's freedom grow, but always with such politeness and respect that Harker is hesitant to resist. Yet, after the Count has caught him shaving and smashed his mirror in a fury, he disobeys the Count and goes to sleep in a part of the castle he has been forbidden to enter. As he sleeps, three women come to him and attempt to seduce him (Go To Sleep), but the Count jealously pulls them away. His suspicions aroused, he investigates the Count's habits, and finds him asleep and without a pulse in a coffin. Harker desperately plans his escape (Prisoner).
WHITBY, ENGLAND
Meanwhile, at Whitby, in northern England, Mina is on holiday with her friend Lucy. Lucy informs Mina that she has received no fewer than three marriage proposals that day (Would You?) and that she has accepted the hand of Lord Arthur Godalming (The One That I Love). Mina, however, is concerned that she has heard nothing from Harker for so long. That night, a mysterious ship comes into Whitby; the only living creature on board is a dog, who immediately escapes into the town. The townspeople discuss the event (A Servant's Life).
Several days later, Lucy and Mina are completing their holiday. Lucy is looking forward to seeing Arthur again (The One That I Love [Reprise]), but that night she has an episode of sleepwalking and ends up in the graveyard at Whitby, where, unbeknownst to Mina or Arthur, she is bitten by Dracula (Dracula). Meanwhile, Mina has heard that Harker has spent the last six weeks in a monastery, recovering from a brain fever, but will be returning to England soon. As soon as he does, they are married (Wedding Song), but Lucy's condition is deteriorating.
LONDON
Seward calls in his friend and former teacher, Doctor Van Helsing, from Amsterdam. As he meets him at the station, porters are unloading fifty boxes of dirt and delivering them to Carfax. Van Helsing realises that Lucy has been attacked by a vampire, and immediately begins blood transfusions while trying to keep her safe from his power by use of garlic and crosses (Life Blood). But it is no use. Lucy continues to decline. Harker recognises Dracula on a street in London and informs Van Helsing, who tries desperately to make the sceptical and scientific Seward understand the nature of the situation. Finally convinced, Seward begs Van Helsing not to tell Arthur. The friends vow to protect Lucy (I'm Holding Off) but it is too late and she dies.
ACT II
Lucy's funeral takes place soon after her death but Dracula and the Undead take her from her grave. She is now a member of the Undead (The Children of the Night). Van Helsing sets out to prove to Seward that Lucy must now be hunted down as a vampire. Meanwhile, children begin disappearing off of Hampstead Heath and showing signs of having been bitten by vampires (A Servant's Life [Reprise]). Van Helsing decides he must tell Arthur, who refuses to believe. He agrees to follow Van Helsing, Quincy, and Seward to the graveyard, and there sees Lucy, horribly changed and predatory. In despair, he begs Van Helsing to do what he must; as Van Helsing drives a stake through Lucy's heart, the three men who loved Lucy sing her to her rest (The One That I Love [Reprise]).
Mina has begun to assemble the journals they have all been keeping into a coherent narrative of events, and the men begin hunting down the fifty cases of earth that Dracula brought with him from Transylvania, and which are the only places he can rest during the day (Somewhere the Secret). However, before they can finish the task, Mina herself is bitten by Dracula (Don't Say A Word), and the hunt becomes a race against time. But they have a clue with Mina that they didn't have with Lucy - Dracula has made her drink his blood, and therefore she can see into his mind at sunrise and at sunset. As Van Helsing hypnotises Mina feels Lucy's presence (Beyond the Darkness). Through Mina, Van Helsing learns that Dracula is still in London, and the men hunt him down only to discover that one box of earth is missing - and with it Dracula. Mina appears and demands to go with them to Transylvania to fight for her soul (Let Me Try) as Lucy could not fight for hers.
Once in Transylvania, they track Dracula's movements back to Castle Dracula. With night drawing fast upon them, they realise they must attack the Count before he reaches his full strength. They manage to intercept the carrage carrying Dracula but fail to reach him in time. Dracula awakes and calls upon his servants. A furious battle ensues in which Quincy Morris is wounded. Dracula calls upon Mina to give herself to him but instead she fights through the choas to kill Dracula. As the count is reduced to dust, the first glimmer of the dawn washes over the survivors. Mina is now free. (On The Edge of Morning).
Back in Van Helsing's classroom the student comes to the end of the journals. He thanks the professor for sharing the story with him. He now understands why his father, Jonathan Harker, has never recovered from the traumatic events of his past and realises the love, dedication and honour of his family.