The pre-opening buzz for Dance of the Vampires suggested that critics would, you'll excuse the expression, be dancing on this production's grave. Well, you can drive a stake through the heart of the buzz, because the show may well turn out to be a bat-out-of-hell hit. DOTV rises from its would-be grave thanks to a book loaded with comic one-liners that have the zany ring of the work of co-author David Ives. It fully comes to life in its deliriously gothic set designs by David Gallo, tongue-in-cheek direction by John Rando, and a dead-on cast led by Michael Crawford, all of whom know how to bite into a gag.

The show is based on Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers but it owes just a[...]