Star of Dracula on Broadway
5-26-79
"It's nice to be a vampire1 eight times a week," says Raul Julia, the star of Dracula at the Martin Beck Theatre. Last October he took over the role made famous by Frank Langella, and now Julia — pronounced "Hoo lia" by his Puerto Rican countrymen — has developed a cult2 following of his own, in this classic remake of the 1927 Broadway hit.
Some critics have said that the sets and costumes by Edward Gorey are the centerpieces of the show, more so than any of the performers. But Raul Julia is rapidly becoming a local matinee idol3, drawing fan mail by the bagful and constantly meeting crowds of autograph seekers outside the stage door.
In his portrayal4 of Count Dracula, Raul takes on many characteristics of a bat. He hangs over the mantlepiece at strange angles and whips his dark cloak through the air like a bat's wings. When entrapped5 by three desperate men holding protective crosses and religious relics6 in front of them, he changes into a bat and flies out the window at the stroke of dawn.
In the dressing7 room prior to a performance, without his makeup8, he looks neither sinister9 nor magnetically attractive, but seems almost boyish. His wit is matched by his humility10: Raul is aware that his name is not yet a household word. Not many people realize, for example, that his natural speaking voice has the same lilting Puerto Rican accent heard everywhere in the streets and subways of New York. When asked how he accounts for his flawless onstage pronunciation, Raul shrugs11 and says with a grin, "Well, that's acting12."
Like Richard Chamberlain, who in 1970 played Hamlet with great success on the British stage, Julia is equally at home in British and American plays. He has starred in many of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival productions, and has received three Tony nominations13 for his dramatic and musical roles on Broadway.
He sips14 a glass of apricot juice while a makeup artist brushes his jet black hair straight back and starts to darken his eyes. Removing his shoes, Raul tells all sorts of little anecdotes15 about his life as the famous Count.
"I usually eat very little during the day. I go to sleep at about five, sometimes six. Maybe I'm getting a Dracula schedule," he says with a laugh. "Some people who see the show write and say they're going to keep their windows open at night.
"Dracula is a myth, although some people think there actually are vampires16. Bram Stoker really created the character of Dracula, taking legends from different parts of the world, like the stories of sailors who had been stricken by bats, appearing on deck the next morning, all pale, without blood in them.
"I hear that Bela Lugosi was buried in a Dracula costume. I also hear that Boris Karloff came to the funeral home to visit him and looked down at the coffin17 and said, 'You're not kidding are you sweetie?'"
Dracula the character is more than 500 years old; Julia the actor declines to give his age. "Actors should be ageless," he says. "You see, what age does, it limits you to a certain category." He doesn't mind telling his height, however. "Eight foot four," he quips. "No, six two."
He was, in fact, born 30-odd years ago in San Juan. In 1964, after graduating from the university there, he was performing in a local nightclub revue, and comedian18 Orson Bean happened to be in the audience. Bean urged him to come to New York, and introduced him to Wynn Handman of the American Place Theatre. Although he had not studied acting formally, Raul's natural ability and his versatility19 soon began to pay off. Within two years he was playing lead roles for Joseph Papp.
Married for the past three years to dancer/actress Merel Poloway, Raul devotes a great deal of his spare time to a charitable organization called the Hunger Project. "The purpose of the group is to support anything that will help bring an end to hunger by 1997. Our goal is to transform the atmosphere that exists now,. That says that hunger is inevitable20. All the experts and scientists agree that we have the means right now to end the starvation on the planet."
A resident of the Upper West Side for the past 10 years, Raul has two major projects coming up — the title role of Othello for Shakespeare-in the-Park this summer and a movie called Isabel, which he will film in Puerto Rico this spring: "I wanted to be in it because it's a totally Puerto Rican venture, and I want to encourage the beginning of a quality movie industry."
Raul appears to be utterly21 at ease as he prepares to make his stage entrance in the middle of the first act of Dracula. I have time for one more question: "Is the acting life everything you hoped it would be?"
Raul wraps the cloak around himself and heads out of the dressing room.
He looks back at me and smiles. "Yes," he replies. "Now it is."
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1
vampire
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| n.吸血鬼 | |
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cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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portrayal
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| n.饰演；描画 | |
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entrapped
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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makeup
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| n.组织；性格；化装品 | |
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9
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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11
shrugs
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| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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nominations
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| n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 ) | |
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sips
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| n.小口喝，一小口的量( sip的名词复数 )v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的第三人称单数 ) | |
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anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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vampires
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| n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 )；吸血蝠；高利贷者；（舞台上的）活板门 | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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comedian
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| n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员 | |
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versatility
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| n.多才多艺，多样性，多功能 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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