RtS: Young Frankenstein: The Musical

[Prudence]

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.