at once. Lucy congratulates Mina, excited that they will both become brides. Dracula, watching from afar, comments that he has already corrupted one mortal soul. (“The Mist-Reprise”). Mina prepares for her journey, upsetting Dracula. Stirred by emotions he has not felt in centuries, Dracula follows Mina to the train station and, from afar, voices his desire to be with her. Torn between her devotion to Harker and her darker desires, Mina begins to question what she wants in life. Ultimately, she travels to Budapest and marries Harker (“A Perfect Life/Loving You Keeps Me Alive/Whitby Bay-Reprise”). At the same time, Lucy marries Arthur Holmwood in London (“The Weddings”). Feeling that Mina has eluded him, a frustrated Dracula appears before Lucy at her reception, causing her to faint. Dr. Seward calls upon the renowned vampire expert Abraham Van Helsing to help the weakened Lucy. Van Helsing decorates Lucy’s room with garlic and gives her a bottle of holy water to keep with her as she sleeps. Drawn to Dracula’s power, Lucy disposes of the garlic and holy water and invites the vampire into her room (“The Invitation”). Dracula appears and drains Lucy of blood, all the while feeding her his own. The next morning Lucy attacks Holmwood, her teeth now long and sharp. Van Helsing saves Holmwood and sends the feral Lucy into a frenzy with a prayer. Lucy dies, leaving Holmwood confused and heartbroken. Van Helsing comforts the despairing man while explaining the nature of the vampire (“Nosferatu”). Lucy is buried and shortly rises again as a vampire. Dracula comes to her and christens her as the first of his new “dynasty.” The Count then sends Lucy out to find her first victims, before flying into the sky in the form of a giant bat (“Life After Life”). Act II Two weeks later, Van Helsing leads Holmwood, Morris, Dr. Seward, Harker, and Mina to Lucy’s tomb. There has been an epidemic of small children being abducted and drained of blood in the dead of night by someone described as a “bloofer lady.” Van Helsing seeks to prove to Holmwood, Morris, and Dr. Seward, who remain skeptical, that the culprit is none other than the undead Lucy Westenra. They enter and find Lucy’s coffin empty. Lucy then enters the tomb, with a small child she intended to feed on, and is confronted by the vampire hunters (“Undead One, Surrender”). The group forces her into her coffin with religious chanting, and Holmwood tearfully drives a stake through her heart, while Van Helsing decapitates her. Lucy dies and is finally able to rest in peace. While musing on the events of the previous day, Mina once more hears Dracula’s voice in her mind. When Dracula asks why she is forcing him to wait, Mina points out that he murdered Lucy. Dracula retorts that she is wrong, for he gave Lucy eternal life, and it was the vampire hunters who killed her. Mina feels a strange attraction to the Count, even though he turned Lucy into a vampire. Caught between her fear of his terrible power and her growing affinity towards him, Mina pleads with the vampire not to make her love him unless he truly loves her (“Please Don’t Make Me Love You”). Van Helsing discovers Renfield’s mind connection with Dracula and visits his cell with Mina. Renfield explains his connection with the Count and how he has been promised eternal life. When Van Helsing asks if he and Renfield had met somewhere before, the madman eerily replies that he knows what happened to Van Helsing’s wife. Shaken by Renfield’s comment, Van Helsing storms out of the cell. Mina tries to reason with Renfield by asking him if eternal life is worth damning his soul. Renfield warns Mina of Dracula’s plans for her but quickly realizes she has sealed his fate by betraying his master. Once left alone, Dracula appears and kills his former servant (“The Master’s Song-Reprise”). Van Helsing has a private moment as he recollects on his youth and his wife Roseanne, whose death at the hands of a vampire, hinted to have been Dracula, inspired him to become a vampire hunter in her honor (“Roseanne”).
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