Cynthia Erivo just debuted her one-woman Dracula show and apparently everything went wrong

Cynthia Erivo’s one-woman show of Dracula has just done its first previews, and some of the people who attended are really not happy with how it went.

After the two-year whirlwind that was the Wicked films, Cynthia Erivo has gone back to her musical theatre roots. She’s performing an intense one-woman show based on Dracula, in which she plays over 20 characters and memorises 20,000 lines. The show is written and directed by experimental and Tony-nominated theatre creative Kip Williams.

The long-awaited previews began over the weekend, but the initial reviews are very mixed. One woman on TikTok praised Cynthia’s performance but pointed out a major interruption to the show in the first 10 minutes.

@gracegoestothetheatre

Theatre story time about the crazy show stop and total restart at last night’s preview of Dracula with Cynthia Erivo! #cynthiaerivo #londontheatre #westend #dracula #livetheatre

♬ original sound – Grace Goes to the Theatre

“So we’re getting into the first five to 10 minutes of the show, there definitely are some noticeable line flubs but again, second ever performance in front of an audience, 20,0000 word script that she has memorised, gotta give her some grace,”GraceGoesToTheatre said.

“But then all of a sudden, Cynthia sits there, raises her hand and says ‘Stop’, takes a deep breath and says, ‘Let’s do it again from the top’. My jaw was on the floor.”

Previews are widely known to be a lot less polished than full shows, but musical theatre creator Grace had to admit that this was the first time she’s ever witnessed an incident like this, preview or not.

“Cynthia leaves the stage, houselights come back on, and we’re all just like sitting there in the audience. After about 10 minutes they made an announcement and then restart.”

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Another person has shared her experience at the show, saying she didn’t enjoy it. saying the previews were still too unpolished for the £135 ticket price. She recalled the moment Kip Williams came out to greet the audience before the show started.

@em.lou43

Dracula has arrived in London.. Wasn’t for me sadly. Don’t come on here and shit on me in the comments. This is just my review. Go see it and make your own judgement! #draculawestend #london #fyp #foryou #theatre

♬ original sound – Em & Lou ✨

“He also did say, ‘We might have to stop the show a few times, and we are trying some things for the first time tonight’. I’m sorry? You should be stage ready, I don’t care f it’s a preview, I’ve paid good money to watch this show,” she said.

Besides the show interruption, she complained that the show wasn’t immersive, as Cynthia was being filmed the whole time and spent time talking to a screen, in order to make the 23 character show work,

“There’s cameras on stage, following Cynthia around,” she said. “At points the camera pans and you could see there was an auto-cue.”

It’s early days still, so there’s plenty of time for these mistakes to be ironed over before the show officially opens, but it’s safe to say the previews have been messy.

Featured image via Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock and TikTok