3. Young Frankenstein

Opened November 8, 2007 – closed January 4, 2009

The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein is the full, official title (talk about vanity, eh?). Personally, I feel city pride about Young Frankenstein, since it made its world premiere (pre-Broadway) at the Paramount, in summer of 2007. Unfortunately, its Broadway run was not as successful as was anticipated. Over a year is a considerable run for a Broadway show by a nobody, but people have come to expect more from a Mel Brooks musical. (Also, a side note: the theater Young Frankenstein showed in, the Hilton Theater, is jokingly considered to be “cursed.” That may have had something to do with it, but who knows.)

Despite its commercial failing (no doubt a shock to most, considering Mel Brooks’s last musical movie adaptation, The Producers, set box office records and ran six years on Broadway, remaining in the top 20 longest running musicals until rather recently), Young Frankenstein is, really, a quite brilliant piece. It rings more of a classic musical, in the style of the music and choreography numbers, than anything else. It is based on the movie Young Frankenstein, which, in turn, was a parody on Paramount Pictures’s movie based on Mary Shelley’s novel. It tells the story of Frankenstein’s grandson, who is a serious scientist embarrassed by the legacy of his family that was created by his grandfather. He’s even gone so far as to change the pronunciation of his name to “Fronkensteen,” to avoid any association with his grandfather, Victor von Frankenstein.

The main selling point of Young Frankenstein, to me, was not the multi-million dollar production values, but the humor of the story. It’s nice to go to a musical once in awhile that doesn’t make you cry or leave the theater feeling depressed. Everyone knows the story of Frankenstein, and the story plays off of that. Good bases for jokes include the heavy Transylvania accents of most of the townspeople (leading to a confessional song titled “He Vas My Boyfriend”), the typical “bumbling servant” character of Igor, and of course, the seven-foot-tall monster. It wouldn’t be a Frankenstein spoof without a monster! In this case, the monster was created with a 6′4″ actor, platform shoes, some green makeup, and a nice dented forehead prosthetic to finish things off. I have to say that the monster is far more amusing and entertaining onstage. I have always had more respect for special effects that have to be created in front of an audience, rather than on a screen.

For good, wholesome Broadway-style entertainment, I’d suggest you go with Young Frankenstein. I would comment on the sets and special effects, which are rather impressive and high-budget, but I don’t think they’re important. Save for the monster’s costume, I think the show would be every bit as good if you cut all the special effects. The choreography, the songs, the plot that includes the basic questions of the original Frankenstein (what is alive, what is dead, and what happens when one tries to combine the two?), as well as romantic comedy and crude humor, make the whole show come alive (no pun intended).

If you have the chance to see Young Frankenstein, I wouldn’t pass it up. It is definitely among the best I have seen in the past decade, and it may not be around to be seen much longer. I’m already hoping that the national tour will make its way back to where the show really started, and that the Paramount Theater will get to showcase this wonderful musical again.

Images taken from wikipedia.org and buzznews.net.