RtS: Young Frankenstein: The Musical
 

Rank the Swank - Theater and Movies


Overall Swank Rank

Young Frankenstein: The Musical
Paramount

Seattle, WA
8/12/07
http://www.youngfrankensteinthemusical.com/


The Lowdown
Pre-Broadway run in Seattle

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The Scene
So, first off, I'm not a big Mel Brooks fan. I think Gene Wilder's contributions to the movie must have been substantial, as I do like that quite a bit. I was curious to see how this would translate to the stage, and if it would still hold my interest.

In general, the answer is "yes". I knocked off a point for a couple reasons: 1) I think the musical relies heavily on knowledge of the movie. On the one hand, it was fun to be in a theater of people all anticipating what would come next - but not knowing exactly how it would manifest itself on the stage. On the other hand, it felt like I enjoyed it more because I knew what was coming, and that wouldn't be the case if I hadn't seen the movie. And 2) some of the song-and-dance numbers, particularly in the second act, need to be whittled down. I'm sure that's part of what the Seattle run is about, and that there will be some fine-tuning before it hits Broadway, but there were parts where I was bored - and I'm a pretty big fan of dance. Oh, and 3) enough with the strobe already! A couple times is neat, but geeze louise not so much!

BUT, it was great fun to see some famous names on the stage and feel like I was getting to see the "real" cast, not the touring production. Roger Bart plays the title role, Megan Mullally plays Elizabeth (man does she have some pipes!), and Andrea Martin plays Frau Blucher.

The sets were mostly great. The hay wagon scene was ingenious, and the lab set up was great! Lots of lights and tubes and one of those metal balls with the zappy purple lightning like things zapping out of it and making cool noises (there is a name for this that is slipping my mind) and mini explosions and stuff. The forest stuff was a little dull, but in my experience the forest stuff is always a little dull - it's hard to do "searching through a vast forest" on stage.

The singing was amazing. Wow! Most of the songs were good, too. Elizabeth has a fun number in the first act called "Don't touch me" that involves lots of sustained high notes on the word "tits". Of course. Some quick patter in Frederick's song about the brain.

There's a whole new scene featuring the deceased Victor and a bunch of girls in short skirts that was actually one of my favorite numbers. That was one song-and-dance number I hope they don't tinker with. "Puttin' on the Ritz" was included, of course, but honestly that's one of the ones that lagged. The beginning was okay, and the ending was good, but in the middle there was a lot of unnecessary stuff - including a display of pointless strobe, which was followed by some neat strobe. I hope they lose the former and keep the latter.

And, bless, them, a couple nods toward the local audience. Once in the castle when Frau Blucher is going to bed and asks Frederick if she can get him anything - brandy, warm milk, double soy caramel macchiato... - and at the end in the curtain call where they did a brief reprise of one of the songs about things going together -- I think the rhyme from the lyrics was something about annie and warbucks or something like that - but they added "seattle and starbucks" - which of course got huge cheers from the audience.

In the end, it was fun. I'd be interested to see if they make any changes before it hits NYC.

That was a surprisingly positive review. I thought this show would tank. I likely won't be in NYC anytime during its run .... but perhaps it will be re-re-made as a movie musical, as is the current vogue (and perhaps with better results than that other Mel Brooks piece that took this route).

Wilder wrote it. It's the only movie Brooks ever did that he didn't write.

After I laughed my ass off at the Producers stage version, I'm tempted to see this.

FWIW: I've only seen the movie musical version of The Producers and I hated it. I haven't seen the original movie or the stage version. I have seen other Mel Brooks films and ... not impressed. So I think at least some of that has to do with the source material and it not being my cup of tea. I do like the Young Frankenstein movie, and I also like the musical.

There are numbers that need condensing, but I'm cutting them some slack because this was the trial run. If it still looks like this in November - then my rating would drop.

I'm still singing "He Vas My Boyfriend" and the Brain song. Wish I had the soundtrack so I could actually have some clue on the words.

A stage show with a Tesla coil? I'm sold!

I'm pretty sure it was real and not faked. They only had it on briefly a couple times, but it made that happy "zzzrrrrrrrack!" noise.

Was it really loud (on its own - un-amplified)? If so, there is a good chance. Tesla Coils are VERY loud.

I'm thinking of flying to NYC in January just to see this show (if it isn't sold out, of course). Thanks for the review, I am so jealous!!

Hmm, they'll be previewing it when we're there in October. We're definitely going to be seeing Spring Awakening, but there's no law against seeing more than one show in a visit...

Um, you should see a show every night.



Hahahahah, I can't believe there's a song called "He Vas My Boyfriend" !!!



my friends kept saying that to me last December, after I waltzed with Chloris Leachman at a company Christmas party.