The final performances of “Dracula” last weekend played less like a Gothic thriller and more like the backstage farce “Noises Off.”
The antics — which Tony-win ning costume designer Willa Kim calls “the most bizarre experience of my career” — began Friday, the day The Post reported that the artistic team was owed $100,000 in fees and expenses by the show’s producers.
Here are excerpts from stage manager Brian Meister’s report:
7:15 p.m.: Willa Kim informed [producer] Michael Alden that those costumes that have not been paid for have been removed from the building.
I informed Joe Tantalo [theater manager] that some of our actors would be performing in street clothes this evening.
I asked Joe how large our house was this evening. He replied “180 . . . 120 of those being comps.”
7:20 p.m.: Alexander Morr [producer] called on my cellphone asking to speak to Willa.
7:30 p.m.: I called the ½ hour explaining to the cast that Michel Altieri [Dracula] and Emily Bridges [Lucy] would be performing in street clothes. (The cast took this news more or less in stride.)
7:40 p.m.: Alex agreed to present Willa a check in the amount of $8,630.83 by tomorrow at 3 p.m.
8:08 p.m.: The red velvet curtain at The Little Shubert rose majestically on our handsomely costumed production of “Dracula.”
NEXT???
“Next” turned out to be an e-mail sent to the cast Saturday morning by fight director Rick Sordelet, who’s owed $4,000.
“Because the producers refuse payment, I have no choice but to ask that my Intellectual Property not be used in the final performances,” he wrote.
He asked the actors not to perform the exorcism and Dracula not to break the mirror.
“There will be no cape disappearance; Dracula will simply walk out the door,” he added. “And there will be no fight or staking at the end of the play.”
As the actors were trying to figure out how to kill Dracula without a stake, the designers gathered backstage before the matinee.
Kim threatened to remove Dracula’s cape from the theater if her check didn’t arrive, while set designer Dana Kenn threatened to remove his coffin.
Paul Alexander, the director, was screaming at the designers, threatening to call the police and have them arrested.
The Shuberts got wind of the situation and dispatched five security guards to the theater.
“They were there to protect us from Paul Alexander,” says Kenn. “The Shuberts took the position that we had every right to be in the theater.”
The police arrived and took stock, deciding that backstage hissy fits aren’t punishable offenses.
Meanwhile, Morr raced in from Connecticut with Kim’s check. He arrived at intermission, and was immediately set upon by the designers, who demanded they be paid as well.
As this confrontation — caught on video by Sordelet — played out, Alexander retreated to the bathroom, saying he was “not feeling well.”
In the end, the designers decided against disrupting the production out of respect for the actors.
“We felt they should be allowed to do the final performances with dignity,” Sordelet says.
“Dracula” played its last, uneventful performance Sunday. But the producers haven’t given up on it yet, if only because they retain the rights to the play for at least a year if their production can run a few more paid performances.
They’re trying to reopen on Thursday with money raised from sources in Italy.
(Apparently the critic from Corriere della Sera never got around to reviewing the show.)
But if “Dracula” does come back to life, the designers will pursue its producers with all the determination of Abraham Van Helsing.
“If they open again and don’t pay us, we will take everything out of the theater that we can get our hands on,” says Kenn.
“And you can quote me on that.”
michael.riedel@nypost.com