That’s Young Fronkensteen
Last night, Young Frankenstein, playing at the Paramount through September 1st, came to life, sang, and did some wicked dance moves. The official world premiere of the new Mel Brooks musical, based on his horror-comedy film of the same name, had the full house's rapt attention from the initial flash of lightning over Transylvania Heights. The script preserves many of the film’s great lines ("Put...the candle...back!"), while adding nearly two dozen original songs with music and lyrics by old nectarine-pushing Mel. While this run serves as a chance for the company to work the kinks out before heading off to Broadway this fall, as of last night, the kinks are primarily sex-related.
The cast walks that thin line between honoring the film's cast and doing impersonations. Roger Bart, of The Producers and Desperate Housewives, is introduced as the Doctor at New York’s Johns Miriam and Anthony Hopkins School of Medicine (natch). Bart does an effective Wilder-like screech and capably messes up his hair as the good Doctor gets progressively more crazed.
Megan Mullally may have relatively little stage time, but she still makes do--at one point donning a fantastic pink and silver pinstriped jumpsuit--as Elizabeth, the Doctor’s self-involved, self-described "adorable madcap fiancee." As the biggest name in the show, Mullally doesn’t have to do much to get big cheers, just the occasional boob grab and one glorious ode to cock ("Deep Love"). With a blonde wig and leggy lab ensembles, we didn’t recognize Sutton Foster from Flight of the Conchords playing comely assistant Inga, who has a fantastic set of knockers, likes a good roll in the hay, and belts a mean yodel. Shuler Hensley, under pounds of green rubber as the Monster, is still able to convey the man within the grimacing beast. As in The Producers, the highlight of the play is the show within the show, starring the Monster in an amped-up, full-fledged production number version of "Puttin’ on the Ritz."
You can't overlook the supporting cast. SCTV’s Andrea Martin is no Cloris Leachman, but she’s still a pretty damn good, now S&M-leaning Frau Blücher (neigh), and Christopher Fitzgerald’s Igor brings the right mixture of bug-eyed crazy and canine subservience to the hunchbacked stooge. One more minor role packs an even bigger wallop: Fred Applegate as the blind Hermit got some of the night’s biggest laughs for his one heavily physical scene, featuring the so-lonely song "Please Send Me Someone." Overall, it's a well-paced and crowd-pleasing show, due credit to director/choreographer Susan Stroman. As our companion said, "I don’t have any complaints, nor do I care to try and find any. Everyone there had a great time." We wouldn’t go that far: trimming the fat off a song or two wouldn't hurt.
The scenery, sound design, and lighting are flawless. Some of sets (in particular, Frankenstein’s laboratory) are so huge and hi-tech that it’s remarkable how easily they’re moved around for the quick and smooth transitions between scenes. The sound effects are both true-to-life and well-utilized to tickle the funnybone, and the strobe light used during one dance number had the audience gasping in surprise.
[For the record: All the shows at the Paramount up to this point have technically been previews. We had a front-row seat for one of those as well, and with the exception of one song being cut, one song being shortened, and a couple new gags, the show is basically the same. Before: a little over 3 hours (including intermission); after: a little under 3 hours. Same diff.]
