It was 1999, on a “day off” Sunday in Seattle. Dodie Pettit and Kevin Gray had just embarked on a year-long contract with the First National Tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Titanic. The famed 5th Avenue Theater was their first stop. They had just finished watching “Yentl” starring Barbra Streisand when Dodie turned to Kevin and said, “I think someone should write a musical for you like they did for Barbra!” “And what would you suggest,?” Kevin asked, playing along. “Dracula! I saw Frank Langella in the play on Broadway, but it needs to be a musical and you’d be PERFECT in that role!” Continuing to play along, Kevin queried, “And who’s gonna do that for me?” “I will!” she said, “we’re on tour for a whole year and what else have we got to do besides this show every night?” “HA! Sure you will!” Kevin laughed. To be fair, Kevin had only heard Dodie’s original pop and country songs and had no idea how much classical music she had intuitively cataloged from all the years of dancing ballet and her childhood piano lessons. He could, however, see that she was quite serious and was more than willing to try. This led to daylong discussions and finally a trip to the bookstore to buy Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel “Dracula.” A week later Dodie took Kevin into one of the theater’s rehearsal rooms and played him a song she had just written for the Renfield character called “Tiny Feet.” If Kevin had been skeptical before, he no longer was when he feigned his displeasure and joked, “Well I guess we’re gonna have to write this thing after all, aren’t we.” It may seem farfetched that two “novices” could succeed in the monumental task of writing a libretto and score for Bram Stoker’s classic novel. But Dodie knew full well the extent of Kevin’s background beyond Broadway which included an English Lit degree at Duke, plus hands-on knowledge of scripts and language writing from studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Acting and being a member of The Boston Shakespeare Company.

Back home after the tour ended, they enlisted their favorite NYC actor friends for a staged reading in October, 2002 that was sponsored by the Westport Historical Society. Then in July 2003, DRACULA, the Covenant” had its World Premier at the Stonington Opera House in Stonington, Maine under the direction of Carol Estey. Unfortunately, the joy of mounting their maiden production of Dracula and their dreams of landing it on Broadway were suddenly dashed after learning that Frank Wildhorn, an established and successful composer, was bringing his new production called Dracula, the Musical to Broadway. What were the odds of that happening? Wildhorn’s musical had just completed an out of town run at La Joila Playhouse in San Diego, and was slated to open at The Belasco Theater in 2004. Alas, they had no choice but to put their Dracula on ice, even though Wildhorn’s production only lasted 12 weeks after being panned by the New York Times and other publications. It was a given, no Broadway producer would dare revisit a vampire musical anytime soon. Bowed but not broken, Dodie and Kevin resumed their life and work in theater. However, while the show was still fresh to them, they enlisted their longtime friend and gifted studio engineer Butch Jones to make a live recording of their work in case an opportunity might arise in the future. Kevin was back on Broadway starring as Pontius Pilot in Jesus Christ Superstar. One evening after his show, he and Dodie met Butch at Blank Tapes Studio in NYC and performed the entire score from top to bottom without stopping for tweaks or redo’s of any kind. That recording which featured Kevin’s lead vocals and Dodie’s piano and female vocals, is now embedded within the orchestrations that was layered on section by section over time, and is the bedrock of what you now hear today. That barebones initial recording was put away until 2008, when Kevin recorded his first and only solo CD, “It’s My Time to Shine,” which included both of his previously recorded Dracula songs, “Tiny Feet” and “Eternity.” This gave Dodie the opportunity to score her first full orchestrations after enrolling and studying her craft at Mannes School of Music. It wasn’t long until she made the first of many pilgrimages to Nashville to have symphony players layer her arrangements onto the original tracks. Kevin was thrilled to finally hear those two songs fully orchestrated, but once again the rest of the score remained untouched for several years.

Tragically, in 2013 Kevin unexpectedly passed away, and his dream of Dracula being completed passed with him. It wasn't until 2015 that Dodie had recovered enough to revisit the score for both their legacy. She decided to bring the entire musical to life with its full cast and present it on a double Cd, similar to a book on tape. Dodie enlisted Bob Cuccioli, star of Jekyll and Hyde, who had directed Kevin previously as Jekyll in two productions of the show, to direct the actors readings, three of whom worked with Kevin in a concert reading in Westport and at Stonington Opera House. All three actors jumped at the opportunity, along with four other favorites who were brought in by Bob and Dodie to round out the production. Also during this time, Dodie was serendipitously connected with Beth Ertz, through Olga Talyn, a Phantom castmate. Beth had extensive credits working on film scores over a 20 year span with the great Elmer Bernstein in Los Angeles. Dodie was thrilled when Beth immediately fell in love with the project, givng it now momentum and life, including the more intricate orchestrations that Dodie craved. Together they took to the task of finishing the score between 2017-2021, fitting in their creative time while still having to work for a living. Slowly but surely, pieces were written, orchestrated, dialogue sessions were recorded, new lead vocals sung by the cast, and underscoring was placed with the dialogue. To accomplish the orchestral recordings, Dodie enlisted her dear friend Kristin Wilkinson, a talented orchestrator/arranger from Nashville, to pull together her A-team of symphonic studio musicians who were also well trained in the art of overdubbing. They multi-tracked their parts to the pre-recorded songs and dialog which were “clicked” to the various tempos and time signatures of each piece. For those not familiar with this process, it is extremely difficult to play to a pre-recorded soundtrack whose tempos can vary every few seconds, while following along to a “clicking sound.” It's backward to the way orchestras and vocalists normally record.

In 2017, Dodie added “Eternity Epilogue,” a new piece she composed for Act 2, sung by Paul Schoeffler, a superbly talented Broadway actor and a dear friend of Kevin’s. She also had Paul stand in for some of Kevin’s other Dracula dialogue which he either had not read or wasn’t salvageable from the recordings of Kevin’s two previous public performances.

Dodie had additional help from arranger/conductor Mike Morris in New York City, yet another old friend of Kevin’s. Mike helped finish a few of Dodie’s pieces during the pandemic when traveling was not advised and many studios in Nashville were closed.

Enter Rex Fowler, who Dodie married in 2018. Rex brought new life and encouragement to help reach the finish line. It was Rex’s idea for Dodie to write two new compositions for the play’s heroines, “Something in The Moonlight” (to which he also contributed lyrics) and “Mina’s Reply.” He also came up with an exciting new idea for the play's ending.

DODIE’S ADDENDUM: I can’t find enough words to express my profound thanks to my steadfast master engineer Butch Jones, all the people mentioned above, and the incredible cast and musicians who made this project soar. It was long in its fruition but well worth the time and effort, as if I had a choice to do otherwise. I know in my heart that Kevin would be proud of our final version, the one he put his heart and soul into after I imagined it long ago. I did not compromise or change Kevin’s book or lyrics, or any of my music to please anyone other than myself, nor did I spare any expense in bringing it to life. We did it Kevin. We did it.