Kevin Gray
Dracula
Broadway and National Touring credits include: A Little Night Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, Titanic, The Lion King, Showboat, Music of the Night, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Chu Chem, The Phantom of the Opera, for which Mr. Gray received the Carbonelle award, and Miss Saigon, for which he received the Dora Manor Moore and Dramalogue Awards. Off-Broadway and regional theater credits include Pacific Overtures, The Knife, The Death of Garcia Lorca, The Baker’s Wife, Night of the Iguana, Lola, The Tempest, Macbeth, All’s Well That Ends Well, Richard III, Colorados, Carousel and Three Penny Opera. Mr. Gray’s many concert appearances include Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall and he was the recipient of the NATIONAL MUSIC THEATER Award in 1989. Kevin has guest starred in Law and Order, Linc’s, Miami Vice, and The Equalizer, played roles on Ryan’s Hope and The Guiding Light. He was Professor of Music Theater at Rollins College 2009- 2010 and The Hartt School from 2011-2013. He married Dodie Pettit in 1994, and sadly passed in 2013.
Tim Jerome
Van Helsing
Broadway: PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, TARZAN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, GRAND HOTEL, THE ROTHSCHILDS, ME AND MY GIRL (Drama Desk and Tony nominations), LA BOHEME, CATS and MAN OF LA MANCHA. Toured as Alfie Doolittle in MY FAIR LADY. About a dozen films. Board service: AEA, SAG, and AGMA. Attended Cornell University, Ithaca College and Manhattan School of Music. Founded NMTN - now MainStreet
Michael Hunsaker
Jonathon Harker
As a composer/lyricist, Michael has written the musical Fetching Water, Measure for Measure, Out of Frame, and COLD-A Winter’s Tale. As a performer his favorite roles include Tony in West Side Story, Chris in Miss Saigon, Younger Brother in Ragtime, and Jesus in Godspell. On television Michael has appeared on Ed, All My Children and As the World Turns.
Kate Suber
Mina
Mina’s account of “Forever Always” -
Dodie Pettit sold her green leather steamer trunk to me in the stage left wing of the Auditorium Theater in Chicago almost 30 years ago. I first saw her, however, as she jumped up and down showing off her newly tailored wedding dress to a cheering company of The Phantom of the Opera. Dodie was leaving Phantom to marry Kevin Gray, I was introduced as her replacement. Kevin had left the show weeks earlier to craft his legend-making Engineer in Miss Saigon.
Some years later, when we, all three, were cast to originate the National Tour of Titanic, I was again introduced to a Dodie and Kevin enterprise. Dwarfed behind a huge concert grand piano at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, Dodie, in the time she was off stage, strewed notated staff paper all about, and Kevin beelined to her side post scene. Tête-à- tête, they were writing a musical of course; their treatment of Dracula. Their work progressed, quietly secluded in that enormous rehearsal hall, yet their gentle partnership was so eagerly entwined, it piqued my attention.
The wonderful Robert Cuccioli cast Kevin and me opposite one another in the Victorian melodrama, Jekyll & Hyde. Although Dodie was not in the company of these Civic Light Opera productions, Kevin would burst into my dressing room and happily pronounce, “Dodie’s here!” His delight in having Dodie arrive in town was contagious and they, as a couple, once again fascinated me. It was during one of Dodie’s visits that I was asked to read Mina in the first production of DRACULA The Covenant.
In performance, keyboards were our orchestra and Dodie’s character driven score transported us to another place and time. Kevin’s portrayal married Dracula’s every word to every note with an understanding of life and death that was both beautiful and haunting – eternal. Yet, even the harbor fog that rolled into the house during the second act while playing Stonington, Maine, does not rank in my memory as the most magical event in the many incarnations of “DRAC.” Kevin’s face when he yielded his curtain call spotlight to summon Dodie to the stage is what is indelibly distinctive to me.
I have had principal roles on Broadway, Off Broadway, and LORT theaters, some awards, some brilliant productions shared with more than a few brilliant artists. DRACULA, in its development, came to me near the end of my career and I retired from performing years prior to recording this CD. I labored with love to record Mina’s story because my dear friends Kevin Gray and Dodie Pettit so graciously folded me into their journey. Before his death, Kevin often declared his wish that Dodie would fully realize her score. His prophecy overwhelms me at times, and I am both bereft and joyful at the listening…
Christianne Tisdale
Lucy
Broadway: Beauty and the Beast, Triumph of Love, Les Misérables, One Touch of Venus (West End), Sousatzka (Toronto); currently WICKED. TV: The Blacklist, 30 Rock, Wallflowers, Currently producing Ghost Lights: Reclaiming Theater in the Age of AIDS, delving how the AIDS crisis indelibly changed theater and its gorgeous community.
IG: @GhostLightsDoc. @BaxAndTheCity.
“I’m TiZ. I met Kevin and Dodie on the Titanic tour in 1998. Love them both, miss him terribly. Whenever I go from 0-60 onstage in a matter of seconds, it’s in honor of Kevin.”
John Keabler
Dr. Seward
John is a bluegrass junky from Kentucky who is ecstatic to play a role in this thrilling version of Dracula. His Broadway credits include…none, he has never been on Broadway…Regionally John has performed leading roles for The Shakespeare Theatre Company of DC, The Shakespeare Theatre Company of New Jersey, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, Perserverance Theatre in Alaska, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Syracuse Stage, Portland Stage Company, Florida Studio Theatre and Creede Repertory. On television you may have seen him on 30 Rock, Madam Secretary, All My Children, NASCAR: Rise of American Speed, and The Men Who Built America… you probably didn’t. He received his MFA from The Old Globe Remedial Actors Training Program. www.JohnKeabler.com
Gary Marachek
Renfield/Narrator
Theaters: Walnut Street Theatre, A solo Rep, TUTS, Pittsburgh CLO, Goodspeed, Paper Mill Playhouse, Ford’s Theatre, Lion Theatre, Westchester Broadway Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Actors’ Playhouse, Riverside Theatre, North Carolina Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, The Palace, Drury Lane Theatre, York Theatre, New World Stages, dozens more throughout the world. Roles: Felix Ungar, John Adams, King Arthur, Sancho, Thenardier, Albin/Zaza, David O. Selznick, Scrooge, Doolittle, Luther Billis, dozens more. 12-time award winning actor including four Carbonell awards. 300+ Equity productions. 50+ commercials. 5 original cast albums. Published author. Gary spent dozens of hours in various studios throughout NYC recording this album and loved every minute of it while working with world class talent.
”Thank you to Kevin and Dodie for their faith in me and especially their undying friendship throughout these many years. Rest easy, Kev, Miss you.”
Paul Schoeffler
Dracula/Dr. Seward
Paul is beyond delighted to be part of this epic story for his dear friend Kevin and of course Dodie, who has been tireless in her determination, enthusiasm and talent in bringing it to light. Paul has been a working actor and singer for the better part of three decades on broadway, off broadway, national tours, regionally and internationally. In addition he has had a long career in Voiceover work, animation and concerts, television and teaching both privately and at educational institutions.
Dodie Pettit
Composer & Lyrics
Dodie Pettit is an actress, singer, dancer, and songwriter. Appearing in the national tour of the Tony winning Broadway show Titanic, Ms. Pettit was also an original Broadway cast member of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, completing a six year run of the show, including a three-year US national tour as understudy to the role of Christine Daae. Prior to this she completed a four year run of Cats on Broadway. Prior to her Broadway career, Dodie was principal dancer with The Garden State Ballet and Princeton Ballet. A BMI songwriter and arranger, whose credits include songs on the Billboard and dance charts, Shel Silverstein’s Grammy nominated “A Light in the Attic”, and the film Critters, she has released four albums of original songs, Songs from the Journey, Playin’ With the Boys, In My Own Voice and Long Road. She also produced Voices of Broadway an album of her songs, featuring the voices of many of Broadway’s best-known names, as well as Forever Always, The Kevin Gray Memorial CD. She was married to Kevin Gray from 1994 to 2013 when he died. She remarried in 2018 to Rex Fowler, founder of the folk rock duo Aztec Two-Step and works with him as his new musical partner. She gives Rex special thanks for helping to see DRACULA The Covenant to fruition, even joining in the writing of two additional songs a new ending.
Bob Cuccioli
Director
ROBERT CUCCIOLI (Director) is known by many for his riveting, critically acclaimed Tony-nominated performance as mad scientist, Dr. Jekyll, and his sinister alter ego, Mr. Hyde, in the Frank Wildhorn/Leslie Bricusse smash Broadway hit musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which he also received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and FANY Awards for “Outstanding Actor in a Musical.” Robert began his directing career in 2001 with his adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde at the Westchester Broadway Theatre. He then went on to direct subsequent productions at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars and North Shore Music Theatre, the latter earning him an IRNE nomination as Best Director – Musical Large Stage. Robert’s directing credits extend to classical theatre with productions of The Glass Menagerie and The Merchant of Venice (voted as one of the 10 Best Productions of the New Jersey 2017 Season – The NJ Star-Ledger), both at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. He is currently active in developing new works. Acting credits include Javert in Les Miserables (Broadway debut) and Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. Off-Broadway: Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living In Paris, Enter the Guardsman, and The World Goes ‘Round (1991 Outer Critics Circle Award), Rothschild and Sons, Snow Orchid, White Guy on the Bus, The White Devil, Caesar & Cleopatra and A Touch of the Poet. Regional: SCKBSTD (World Premiere), Cutman (World Premiere), Fiction (World Premiere), Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, The School For Scandal, Carnival, A Little Night Music, Guys and Dolls, Carousel, Phantom and The Secret Garden, among numerous others. Television: The Sinner, White Collar, Sliders, Baywatch, The Guiding Light. Film: Woody Allen’s Celebrity, The Stranger, Impossible Monsters, The Rest of Us. He is featured on the original cast recordings of Jekyll & Hyde (Atlantic), And The World Goes ‘Round (RCA Victor), The Maury Yeston Songbook and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living In Paris. www.robertcuccioli.com
Beth Ertz
Master Orchestrator
Beth Ertz has been thrilled and honored to orchestrate the spine-tingling music of Renaissance woman Dodie Pettit.
”Okay, so we have our “triple-threat” Broadway performers who act, sing and dance spectacularly. And then we have Ms. Pettit the sextuple threat... singer, dancer, actor, guitarist, songwriter, composer and damn, she’s gorgeous, too. We met through Olga Talyn, a mutual friend that shared the stage with Dodie in Phantom of the Opera. There are many versions of Dracula out there……movies, plays and musicals, but Dodie’s and Kevin’s DRACULA the Covenant tops them all, has you believing and and agonizing with every character and thrilling to the music. We’ve been working on this for several years and now it’s your turn to thrill and agonize from the moment the curtain rises.”
Beth studied classical accompanying at the University of Southern California, and later, studied with composers and arrangers such as Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Peter Matz and Johnny Mandel. Her Hollywood career began as an orchestrator for the film composer Elmer Bernstein for comedies (Animal House, Airplane, Trading Places) and tender stories such as The Chosen and for many other film composers.
Diverse arranging assignments have included concerts and recordings for Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, Placido Domingo, Stevie Wonder, producer David Foster, Pops orchestras and the Academy Awards Show. Shows include the Fantasticks, Les Miserables, A Chorus Line, Jerome Robbins Broadway and Fiddler on the Roof, and most memorable is music directing for Fiddler’s legendary lyricist, Sheldon Harnick, for his fabulous musical, Dragons, at the York Theater.
In NYC, Beth has musically directed events at Town Hall, Symphony Space, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the York; also tributes honoring the late Marvin Hamlisch, Alan Menken, Maury Yeston, Joel Grey, Sheldon Harnick and many others. As accompanist, she has accompanied Bette Midler, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kristin Chenoweth, Melissa Manchester, Laura Benanti, Karen Ziemba, Kelly O’Hara, Brian Stokes Mitchell and many, many others.
Mike Morris
Conductor & Music preparation
Mike Morris is a New York City-based freelance pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, and music director.
A North Carolina native, Mike graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music at age 18, then taught at Berklee for three years before moving to Nashville, Tennessee. After fifteen years working in Music City, he returned to the Northeast, where he has orchestrated music for television, podcast, and for productions at regional theatres around the country including Goodspeed Musicals, Barrington Stage Company, Signature Theatre, Bailiwick Chicago, and Ivoryton Playhouse.
Composers with whom Mike has collaborated as orchestrator include William Finn, Dennis DeYoung, Bruce Hornsby, Doug Besterman, Cinco Paul, Zina Goldrich, Paul Bogaev, Mike Reid, and Mel Marvin, among others.
He has arranged and orchestrated recordings by Liza Minelli & Alan Cumming, Patrick Page, Christine Ebersole, Liz & Anne Hampton Callaway, Jose Feliciano, The Temptations, and the London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras.
Mike served as dance arranger for the national tour of Big! The Musical, as music supervisor and vocal arranger for Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn (Off-Broadway), as consultant and vocal arranger for Peggy Sue Got Married (Chicago & West End), and as music prep supervisor for Bombay Dreams on Broadway, and for Disney’s Broadway Hits at Royal Albert Hall.
In addition, Mike has written and arranged for live entertainment productions on Royal Caribbean, Azamara, and Crystal cruise lines, and at numerous theme parks, including Dollywood, HersheyPark, Opryland USA, Fiesta Texas, Holiday World, and Silver Dollar City. He also composed and orchestrated the nine-minute score for an OmniRide attraction at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China.
An award-winning songwriter, Mike has written and arranged numerous jingles for national broadcast (Domino Sugar, The Nashville Network), has created music for corporate industrials (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, State Farm, Lexus), and has composed incidental music for several Shakespeare plays, including The Tempest, Othello, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night.
The proud father of Nashville-based cellist Melodie Chase, and vocalist Mandie Morris, Michael lives on New York’s Upper West Side with his patient cat, Groucho.
Kristin Wilkinson
Additional orchestration, Contractor
Kristin Wilkinson is a Nashville-based composer, arranger, and orchestrator. A top-call session viola player, Kristin has played on thousands of recordings, from Dolly Parton to Stevie Wonder, and has performed live on countless major awards shows, including the MTV Video Awards and Country Music Awards..
Lauded by the Grammy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and many others, Kristin's creative perspective finds its roots in the country and classical music of her training, with a contemporary sound that's entirely her own.
Kristin works with clients who seek a unique sound and have a passion for collaboration. She deeply enjoys the journey of music crafting, and it begins with building a relationship with the client and their production team. Kristin provides a new perspective that challenges the status quo yet feels uniquely and deeply authentic to the artist.
When she's not in the studio or on the road with various artists, Kristin can be found tying her paddleboard to the top of her car and heading to the beach.
Butch Jones
Engineer
A Grammy Award Winning Engineer, Butch first met Dodie Pettit while working at Blank Tapes Studio NYC in 1979. They became fast friends and over the years have recorded four of Dodie’s solo CD’s: “Songs From the Journey,” “Playin With the Boys,” ”In my Own Voice” and “Long Road,” Kevin Gray’s Solo CD, “It’s My Time to Shine,” and “Forever Always,” The Kevin Gray Memorial CD, as well as “A Frog’s Tale, a Musical Fable” written by Pettit and Gray. Other favorite artists Butch has recorded are Roberta Flack, The O J’s, The Talking Heads, Debbie Harry and Madonna, among many others.
Gabriel Boston-Friedman
Boy Soprano Trk 1
Gabriel Boston-Friedman, who sang his boy soprano part at age 10, is a senior at the New Mexico School for the Arts, concentrating in creative writing. He is a member of the Young Voices of the Santa Fe Opera and an actor and tech assistant with the Upstart Crows of Santa Fe, a youth Shakespeare Theatre Group. He was also a member of NewArts 2012 and played Mike Teeve in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Along with singing, guitar and acting he is into rock climbing, river kayaking, unicycling and telemark skiing.
“This was the most thrilling project that I have taken part in. It gave me valuable experience at a young age, and knowledge I still draw from. This project fed my love of music and singing, and has led me to where I am today.”
~ Gabriel
Steve Pudenz
Alt Van Helsing Act 1 Trk 10
Steve Performed the role of Van Helsing at the Westport Historical Society’s Reading of Dracula 2001 at Bedford Middle School. Steve was a dear friend of Kevin’s, having performed together in Jekyl and Hyde at The Houston Theater and the Benheim Center in Pittsburgh. Unfortunatly, we have since lost touch and don’t know his whereabouts. If anyone has news of Steve please let us know.
Anastasia Barzee
Additional dialogue Act 1, Trk 10
Anastasia Barzee is a celebrated theatre,film and television actor, working in the industry and teaching for over forty years. She made her Broadway debut in Miss Saigon as the American wife, Ellen, which she played with Kevin Gray as The Engineer among others. Other Broadway shows: Emma in Jekyll and Hyde, Hope in Urinetown, and Lorna in Golden Boy. At Lincoln Center, she co-starred as Lady Mortimer opposite Kevin Kline, Ethan Hawke and Audra McDonald in the Tony-award winning production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts One and Two. She created the role of Josephine in London’s West End in Napoleon and Betty Haynes in White Christmas. She is on both soundtracks of those shows and the original cast album of Sunset Boulevard. Her solo album the Dimming of The Day is on Ghostlight Records. Her LA TV career includes: Designing Women, Hermans Head, Murder She Wrote, General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, Get a Life and more. In NYC she has had major roles in Law & Order: SVU, Madam Secretary, Blue Bloods, The Affair, Younger, The Mysteries of Laura, Elementary, The Blacklist, Made in Jersey, 666 Park, White Collar, Netflix series Seven Seconds, and Beauty and The Beast. A pilot for a new horror/sci-fi series is coming to Netflix, The Society. She played opposite Sean Penn in Doug Liman’s film Fair Game, and as Aunt Laura in Eric Stoltz’s film Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. Other Film Credits: Those Who Wander, No Apologies, Writers of Rebellion, the documentaries A Broadway Lullaby and Independent Lens.