IamErik771
06-18-2008, 01:21 PM
I was listening to songs from Dracula: The Musical by Frank Wildhorn today, and it occurred to me that there are quite a few similarities between our favourite tale of the Opera Ghost and the story of the world's most famous vampire. Here are a few I came up with; feel free to add more! :D
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- Both were written around the turn of the century in Europe by authors who claimed the idea first came to them as a nightmare.
- In both, the title character is a tall, pale man who sleeps in a coffin, has a fondness for candles and old buildings, tends to wear black formal attire, avoids going out in the daylight, and is described as having a seductive voice.
- Both have been made into numerous films, including versions by Universal Studios and Hammer Films.
- The first film versions for both that are still available were silent versions made in the 1920s, and each featured a very grotesque-looking main character and a rather altered ending.
- The first (albeit unauthorized) film version of Dracula was the silent German film Nosferatu, of which almost all copies were destroyed. Rumour has it there was also a silent POTO film made in Germany that predates the Lon Chaney version, but no copies are known to exist.
- Both stories were inspired by real locations, and some of the characters were based on the names or backgrounds of real people.
- In both, the main male "hero" was underwritten and is often disliked by fans of the story or adaptations.
- Both have a unique, strong-for-the-time-period female protagonist with a mysterious connection to the title character.
- Both original novels feature a mysterious "expert/mentor" character who came from a foreign country and has a lot of information about the title character. (Dracula has Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Amsterdam, while POTO features the Persian.)
- Both have been heavily romanticized in film, stage, and written adaptations.
- There have been at least 5 different stage musical versions of each, written between 1980 and now.
- In both cases, the most well-known stage musical version was written by a prolific theatre composer who switches lyricists a lot and has a large fanbase, but is often criticized for not writing very complex or unique scores. (ALW for POTO, Frank Wildhorn for Dracula: The Musical.)
- Gerard Butler has played both characters onscreen; he starred in Dracula 2000 and the film version of ALW's musical.
***
- Both were written around the turn of the century in Europe by authors who claimed the idea first came to them as a nightmare.
- In both, the title character is a tall, pale man who sleeps in a coffin, has a fondness for candles and old buildings, tends to wear black formal attire, avoids going out in the daylight, and is described as having a seductive voice.
- Both have been made into numerous films, including versions by Universal Studios and Hammer Films.
- The first film versions for both that are still available were silent versions made in the 1920s, and each featured a very grotesque-looking main character and a rather altered ending.
- The first (albeit unauthorized) film version of Dracula was the silent German film Nosferatu, of which almost all copies were destroyed. Rumour has it there was also a silent POTO film made in Germany that predates the Lon Chaney version, but no copies are known to exist.
- Both stories were inspired by real locations, and some of the characters were based on the names or backgrounds of real people.
- In both, the main male "hero" was underwritten and is often disliked by fans of the story or adaptations.
- Both have a unique, strong-for-the-time-period female protagonist with a mysterious connection to the title character.
- Both original novels feature a mysterious "expert/mentor" character who came from a foreign country and has a lot of information about the title character. (Dracula has Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Amsterdam, while POTO features the Persian.)
- Both have been heavily romanticized in film, stage, and written adaptations.
- There have been at least 5 different stage musical versions of each, written between 1980 and now.
- In both cases, the most well-known stage musical version was written by a prolific theatre composer who switches lyricists a lot and has a large fanbase, but is often criticized for not writing very complex or unique scores. (ALW for POTO, Frank Wildhorn for Dracula: The Musical.)
- Gerard Butler has played both characters onscreen; he starred in Dracula 2000 and the film version of ALW's musical.