Dracula’s sinks its teeth into venture
HAS the Bombay Rock or Playroom-style live music venue the Gold Coast has been crying out for been sitting right under our noses all this time?
The creative brains trust behind one of the Coast’s most successful live venues and shows certainly think so.
Newman Entertainment International (NEI), the family company that owns the iconic Dracula’s Cabaret Restaurant at Broadbeach, has put the state-of-the-art venue up for rent two days a week — on Sundays and Mondays.
Perfectly located on the light rail track between Pacific Fair and The Star Gold Coast, the home of the undead will open its new LIVE @ Drac’s series when Akmal headlines an all-star comedy bill in its 500-seat theatre on July 29.
Dracula’s operations manager Luke Newman said the lush venue was an interesting space with a “world’s-best” Meyer Sound system that made it ideal for all sorts of shows — from live bands and DJ events to theatre, cabaret, comedy and even school or community productions.
“We have an amazing venue that sits empty two nights a week so we thought ‘how could we use this venue and do something new and exciting for the Gold Coast?’. We thought ‘why don’t we open it up as a venue acts can use like any other sort of hire venue on the Gold Coast?’.
“Being a 500-seat theatre, it’s perfectly situated between a small room and a bigger venue.
“We’ve had some really interesting ideas thrown around the table and been approached by cabaret and burlesque shows and we’re seriously looking at the possibility of bands.
“There’s a real lack of live music venues — it’s a problem not just on the Gold Coast, but in Sydney and Melbourne.
“A lot of the small and medium-sized live music venues are gone and disappearing. We’re really excited to mix it up a bit.”
Mr Newman said Akmal’s show with Bob Franklin, Damien Power, Ellen Briggs and host Dusty Rich was a perfect way to launch the new LIVE @ Drac’s series.
“We’re sticking to something a bit familiar to us for the first event in terms of format.
“We really want to nail it. Our staff will be there serving our cocktails and drinks and we’ll have food trucks selling food people can take inside.”
Opened in 1985, the Broadbeach theatre underwent a major refurbishment last year that saw it fitted with a $200,000 Meyer Sound system, LED video wall and infra red video tracking system, similar to the one used in the King Kong stage musical.
“We’ll look at the events on a case-by-case basis but we’re handling all the ticket sales and using our existing infrastructure to put on events and handle the logistics as well,” Mr Newman said.
“Our core product is still our Drac’s for Kids on Saturdays and our Drac’s night time shows Tuesdays to Saturdays.”
Mr Newman said he had no idea why it had taken so long for Drac’s to open its theatre for hire. “It was a bit of a light bulb moment — sometimes the best ideas are staring you in the face.”