Young Frankenstein (musical)
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- This article is about the musical stage adaptation of a feature film. For the original movie, see Young Frankenstein.
| Young Frankenstein | |
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| Original Broadway Cast Album cover | |
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| Music | Mel Brooks |
| Lyrics | Mel Brooks |
| Book | Mel Brooks Thomas Meehan |
| Based upon | 1974 film Young Frankenstein |
| Productions | 2007 Broadway |
Young Frankenstein, officially known as The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein, is a musical with a book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Brooks. It is based on the 1974 comedy film of the same name written by Brooks and Gene Wilder and directed by Brooks, who has described it as his best film.[1] It is a parody of the horror film genre, especially the 1931 Universal Pictures adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and its 1939 sequel, Son of Frankenstein.
After tryouts in Seattle, Washington and four weeks of previews, the musical opened on Broadway on November 8, 2007 to mixed reviews.
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[edit] Background
After the tremendous success of his 2001 musical, The Producers, based on Brooks' earlier film of the same name, it was not surprising that Brooks would musicalize another of his successful films. Brooks and Meehan (the same team that crafted The Producers) began work on the project in April 2006. An October 2006 reading of the first draft of the script directed by Susan Stroman (who had directed the earlier musical)[2] featured Brian d'Arcy James as Dr. Frankenstein, Kristin Chenoweth as Elizabeth, Sutton Foster as Inga, Roger Bart as Igor, Marc Kudisch as Inspector Kemp, and Shuler Hensley as the Monster.[3] Cloris Leachman, reprising her film role as Frau Blücher, also attended the table read, and at the time it was widely reported she would be offered the role of Blücher for the stage show.[4] However, gossip maven Liz Smith reported in her January 12, 2007 New York Post column that Leachman was sent a letter informing her she would not be considered for the Broadway production because the producers wanted to keep the film and stage properties separate (and also because of Brooks's concerns over Leachman's ability to perform the character consistently at her age).
[edit] Productions
The pre-Broadway try-out played at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington from August 7, 2007 through September 1, 2007.
Young Frankenstein began previews on Broadway on October 11, 2007 and opened on November 8 at the Hilton Theatre. Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, it stars Roger Bart as Frankenstein, Megan Mullally as Elizabeth, Sutton Foster as Inga, and Shuler Hensley as The Monster. Sets are designed by Robin Wagner and costumes by William Ivey Long. The production has a reported $16 million-plus budget[5] and a top ticket price of $450 in its “differential seating.” It is also selling front row tickets for $25 each based on a lottery a few hours before each performance.[6] The producers indicated that they will buck the usual Broadway practice by not reporting Box Office returns.[7]
The musical's original cast album was released on December 26, 2007, by Decca Broadway and was third on the Billboard Top Cast Album chart in the beginning of January 2008.[8]
[edit] Plot synopsis
The plot is largely carried over from the movie, but some scenes are expanded to musical numbers, and many gags have been added or updated. Some scenes such as the encounter with the little girl have been left out, and the ending is quite different.[9]
[edit] Act I
In the town of Transylvania Heights, the year 1934, the villagers celebrate the funeral procession of the mad scientist, Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. However, Inspector Hans Kemp, whom has a wooden right arm, ruins the happiness with news about the existence of Victor's grandson: Frederick, the Dean of Anatomy at New York's best university, known as the "John, Mariam, and Anthony Hopkins School of Medicine." Despite the terrifying discovery, Ziggy the village idiot convinces the villages that there was no way a New York doctor would come to Transylvania, thus continuing the celebration ("The Happiest Town in Town").
At New York, Frederick deals with the shame of being a Frankenstein. When asked about this relationship, he insists that his name be pronounced "Fronkensteen" and that he is not a mad man but a scientist. He then lectures his students about the greatest mind of science with the volunteer guinea pig, Mr. Hilltop ("The Brain"). He inherits a castle in Transylvania from his grandfather Victor and travels to see it. His tightly-wound fiancée, Elizabeth Benning, sees him off before he steams to Europe ("Please, Don't Touch Me").
In Transylvania Heights, he meets the hunchback Igor (pronounced "eye-gore"), the grandson of Victor's henchman, who is extremely excited to meet him ("Together Again"). Igor has hired the services of Inga, a yodeling lab assistant with a degree from the local community college. They ride off to Castle Frankenstein ("Roll in the Hay"). The forbidding housekeeper of the castle is Frau Blücher. Frederick is surprised to find only mundane books in the library such as Black Beauty and the Kama Sutra. Before bed, the doctor is offered warm milk, brandy, ovaltine, and a Grande Soy Macchiato, by Frau Blücher, but he wants nothing.
Frederick falls asleep reading Little House on the Prairie and dreams of his grandfather, 4x great grandfather Mordecai, and other ancestors, who tell him to build a monster ("Join the Family Business"). He is awakened by Inga, and they find the secret entrance to his grandfather's laboratory by following the sound of the eerie music played by Frau Blücher. They confront her, and she tells of her past with the late Victor ("He Vas My Boyfriend"). After reviewing his grandfather's notes, Frederick becomes committed to carry on the late deranged genius's experiments in the reanimation of the dead. They dig up a huge corpse with a large "schwanstuker." The villagers gather at the local town hall for a meeting and are instructed to be on the lookout for grave robbers ("The Law"). Igor and Frankenstein carefully walk away with the corpse in tow while Ziggy waves at the doctor out of a window.
Frederick knows just where to find the brain of a genius and a saint. He sends Igor to fetch it, but the hapless henchman drops it on the way back. He gets another brain but does not tell the doctor. Frederick creates the creature ("Life, Life"). Unfortunately, the monster goes on a rampage shortly after waking. The doctor is distressed to find that Igor had provided a different brain whose name he recalled was "Abby Normal".
Inspector Kemp and he townspeople come to investigate, pretending to welcome Frederick ("Welcome to Transylvania"). Frederick and his employees try to stall the villagers ("Transylvania Mania"), while Frau Blücher frees the monster without letting Frederick know.
[edit] Act II
Everyone goes out to search for the monster ("He's Loose"). Inga talks to the frustrated doctor ("Listen to Your Heart"). Frau Blücher and Igor find the two suspended on the platform, completing what Igor believes the doctor to be the "doing an experiment on the female anatomy and she's assisting his brains out."
Elizabeth arrives unexpectedly in Transylvania with a large entourage (Masha, nails; Sasha, make-up; Tasha, hair; Basha, wardrobe; and Bob the astrologer) and finds Frederick and a naked Inga, who tell her that there was no funny business going on ("Surprise"). Meanwhile, the monster finds a Blind hermit after breaking through his house wall ("Please Send Me Someone"). Eventually, he is startled into another rampage and leaves, to be captured by Frederick. The doctor locks himself into a room with the monster, and after overcoming his fears, tells the monster that he is a good looking fellow who is loved ("Man About Town").
At a theater the monster is presented, now dressed as a gentleman, first walking on command, then dancing ("Puttin' on The Ritz"). But the monster becomes enraged when some stage lights accidentally pop and explode. Elizabeth ends up being kidnapped by the creature. But she overcomes her fear: she sees a different side of the monster ("Deep Love"). Lured away by the sounds of a French horn, Frederick attempts an intelligence transfer, but the monster does not wake, and Frederick is hanged, saying that he will die a Frankenstein (Frederick's Soliloquy).
The Monster returns, using his newly transferred medical skills to discover that Frederick is not dead, but just unconscious from a cracked neck. The Monster then revives the doctor by sticking a hat pin into a nerve in his neck. After apologizing and thanking his creator, the Monster before proposing to Elizabeth ("Deep Love (Reprise). The hermit and Frau Blücher agree to go out on a "blind date," and Frederick becomes engaged to Inga ("Finale Ultimo").[10]
[edit] Reception
The reception of Young Frankenstein by the critics was generally mixed reviews with a few very scathing reviews. Despite the negative reviews the show received ten Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, more any other show of the season, including Best Musical. The production also received eight Drama Desk Award nominations and three Drama League Award nominations.
New York Times: "The show takes many of the elements that made The Producers such a delight and then saps them of their joy by overselling them ... [it] feels less like a sustained book musical than an overblown burlesque revue, right down to its giggly smuttiness ... Mr. Brooks’s songs have a throwaway quality, as if they were dashed off on the day of the performance."[11]
New York Post: "The new Mel Brooks/Susan Stroman musical extravaganza ... is nearly very good indeed - but it is not the The Producers ... this story ... does not lend itself to stage adaptation in the way of the earlier movie ... Now for the good news ... Brooks and Stroman pull out every stop. Despite music that's more ho-hum than hummable, Brooks's lyrics are bright and witty. Better yet, the book ... does a great job, with the assistance of co-writer Thomas Meehan, in transferring the original script to the stage. An even greater job is done by Stroman whose staging, choreography and supervising of special effects manage to suggest the Broadway musical at its dizziest, glitziest and funniest. In her entire career, Stroman has done nothing better - she even outproduces her work on The Producers.[12]
The Daily News: "[it] never matches the delirious thrills of The Producers ... [it stays] close to the movie without really improving it."[13]
Time: "The show ... is missing much of the electricity that made The Producers such a monster hit ... by contrast, [it is] mainly a series of goofs on old horror-movie clichés — gags that don't resonate as well on stage, and that lack the comic propulsion that keeps The Producers moving along ... Roger Bart is likable, but only that, as Dr. Frankenstein. Sutton Foster ... seems to be slumming as the Swedish bombshell Inga, a part any one of a dozen actresses could have played. The dizzy Megan Mullally ... seems wrong as the doctor's uptight fiancé. Andrea Martin ... is probably best in show with her funny, full-throated turn as Frau Blucher. Still ... none of them is irreplaceable ... we have a right to higher standards. Mel Brooks is no longer the inspired amateur. Now he's a Broadway monster, repeating himself."[14]
Newsday: "...the sweat of competence drives too much of the vintage Brooks humor this time, and the staging by ace director-choreographer Susan Stroman seems more formula than invention. They clobber us with greatest-hits punchlines and repeat the jokes in each musical stanza until we can't always remember why we first loved them. At times, the mugging is so aggressive we feel bruised ... something's wrong in Transylvania when the only thing in stitches is the creature's face."[15]
New Yorker: "With its slack plot and its inflated production numbers, the show transforms a tale of romantic agony into a theatrical agony ... this all-singing, all-dancing, all-mugging production is a semaphore not of life but of drowning; the performers are swallowed up by the cavernous holes in the script ... and the generic songs ... add nothing to the satire or to the momentum of the show."[16]
New York: "Brooks has written a couple of good new songs ... and director-choreographer Susan Stroman has devised some energetic, old-school tap numbers. The show also gets captivating work from Sutton Foster ... and rising star Christopher Fitzgerald ... to say nothing of TV’s Megan Mullally ...Yet the result doesn't have anything like the buoyancy of the musical's Broadway predecessor ... I don’t mean to say that Young Frankenstein elicits a shrug only because it fails to live up to its mighty precedents. The show turns out to be longish and dullish in its own right."[17]
Chicago Tribune: "...it's a colossal -- and, boy, is this show a monster -- disappointment. The central problem, which should have been fixed out of town, is perfectly simple. The passive central character doesn't seem to want anything in particular. And thus nothing drives the show ... even satiric musicals need something energetic to propel the show along. It can be a quest to produce the worst Broadway show on Earth. A desperate need to find the Holy Grail. Whatever. It doesn't even have to make sense. But it has to be there. It ain't here."[18]
The Daily Telegraph: "...in a generally weak season in New York, Young Frankenstein has the great virtues of vitality and massive self-confidence. But it isn't a patch on The Producers ... [it] takes a chortling delight in cheap gags and songs ... Susan Stroman directs and choreographs with her usual wit and invention. But you cannot escape the impression that everyone is working desperately hard to animate essentially weak material, and the show fatally lacks that touch of the sublime that made The Producers so special."[19]
Associated Press: "...a scattered, fitfully entertaining show ... Young Frankenstein doesn't naturally sing. Its plot doesn't need songs to advance the plot, so a lot of the musical numbers here feel like padding, something director-choreographer Susan Stroman hasn't been able to gloss over."[20]
TheaterMania.com: "...a Transylvanian barrel of fun, even if it falls short of the vaunted level reached by its uproarious predecessor."[21]
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Broadway.com Audience Award
- Best Musical (winner)
- Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Roger Bart) (winner)
- Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Christopher Fitzgerald) (winner)
- Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Megan Mullally) (winner)
- Best Onstage Pair (Roger Bart & Sutton Foster) (winner)
- Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Musical (Christopher Fitzgerald) (nominee)
- Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Musical (Andrea Martin) (nominee)
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Robin Wagner) (nominee)
- Best Musical (winner --tie)
- Best Score (nominee)
- Best Director of a Musical (nominee)
- Best Actor in a Musical (Bart) (nominee)
- Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Fitzgerald & Hensley)(nominees)
[22]
- Distinguished New Musical (nominee)
- Distinguished Performance (Bart and Foster) (nominees)
- Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Fitzgerald, Hensley)(nominees)
- Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Martin) (nominee)
- Outstanding Lyrics (Brooks) (nominee)
- Outstanding Choreography (nominee)
[edit] Characters and cast
- Dr. Frederick Frankenstein -- Roger Bart
- The Monster -- Shuler Hensley
- Igor -- Christopher Fitzgerald
- Inga -- Sutton Foster
- Elizabeth Benning -- Megan Mullally
- Frau Blücher -- Andrea Martin
- Inspector Hans Kemp, The Hermit- Fred Applegate
- Dr. Victor von Frankenstein -- Kevin Ligon
[edit] Musical numbers
The musical's numbers include:[24]
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- Note:"Alone" - Elizabeth — cut during previews but included on the cast recording. "The Law" is not included on the cast recording.
[edit] References
- ^ Mel Brooks Thinks It Time for Frankenstein to Dance. New Zealand Herald (April 10, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ Chenoweth, Hensley, Kudisch to Star in October Workshop of Young Frankenstein. Playbill News (September 6, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ "It's FRAHN-ken-steen: Brian D'Arcy James Nabs Lead Role in Young Frankenstein Workshop", playbill.com, Oct. 18, 2006
- ^ Leachman to Return for Young Frankenstein Musical. Contact Music (August 11, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ New York Times, November 9, 2007
- ^ Puttin’ on the Ritz (and the understudy) – The Stage – October 23, 2007 Retrieved October 25, 2007
- ^ 'Frankenstein' a monster production - Variety - October 19, 2007
- ^ playbill.com article, "Wicked, Jersey Boys and Young Frankenstein Are Tops on Cast Albums Chart", January 10, 2008
- ^ I Enjoy Being a Frankenstein Girl. Asian Week (Sept 8, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
- ^ Synopsis sources:Herald.net, 8/25/07 and Variety, 8/26/07
- ^ New York Times, November 9, 2007
- ^ New York Post, November 9, 2007
- ^ Daily News, November 9, 2007
- ^ Time November 9, 2007
- ^ Newsday, November 9, 2007
- ^ New Yorker, November 19, 2007
- ^ New York, November 9, 2007
- ^ Chicago Tribune, November 9, 2007
- ^ The Daily Telegraph, November 9, 2007
- ^ Associated Press, November 9, 2007
- ^ TheaterMania.com, November 9, 2007
- ^ Playbill News: Young Frankenstein Tops Outer Critics Circle Awards Nominations
- ^ playbill article, April 28, 2008, "Drama Desk Nominees Announced; Catered Affair Garners 12 Noms"
- ^ These are the songs as listed on October during Broadway previews in Playbill - October 2007 - Vol 123 No. 10
[edit] External links
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