August 27, 2007
It’s Alive? Young Frankenstein Walks This Way
Will lightning strike twice for Mel Brooks, who hopes to enliven his stage adaptation of Young Frankenstein with the same spark that made The Producers a money making machine? His new monstrosity is already selling advance tickets for a Broadway run in October – a top ticket price of $450 sets a new record for excess – but last week Young Frankenstein came staggering out of the lab for an out-of-town rampage in Seattle. The haunting question at the show’s world premiere Thursday night was whether his 20 million dollar baby would be embraced by the Emerald City or get trampled by critics with torches and pitchforks.
Well, if not trampled, the spectacle was certainly well trod. While Seattlest observed that Young F-Stein “had the full house's rapt attention from the initial flash of lightning over Transylvania Heights,” one commenter was quick to point out that reviewer Audrey Hendrickson “forgot to mention how awful this production was.” The MSM remembered. Variety’s critic writes that “at 2¾ hours, [Young Frankenstein] needs to step out from its maker’s shadow, receive a couple more volts of electricity and go on a diet before hitting New York.” The Seattle Times objected to the show’s rote recycling of the movie’s one-liners, noting that “a less clonelike Young Frankenstein would be a better justification for all the expense and talent lavished on this celluloid spinoff when it lurches onto Broadway.” And The Stranger felt “the most exciting moments were a few almost-falls among the dancers.” Ouch.
Brooks himself was blissfully unaware of any such flaws at the premiere; his seatmate was the NY Post’s theater insider Michael Riedel, who reports that Brooks “laughed at all his jokes (some new, many old), sang along with all his songs and led the standing ovation for his cast.” Indeed, the indefatigable octogenarian is already plotting his third Broadway adaptation, a musical version of High Anxiety, Brooks’s 1977 Hitchcock parody. Does the thought of seeing more Brooks on Broadway give you high anxiety, or have you already sunk your $450 into his newest experiment?
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another movie to stage? i would rather watch high school musical, at least that's not an adaptation of anything.
Young Frankenstein isn't even a funny movie.
I saw a preview of this and it is way too long. I wouldn't be surprised if it were cut a bit. There are lots of scenes that can be shortened, at a minimum.
However, the crowd totally ate it up at the one show I was at. People really seemed energized and engaged by the show. I wonder how well the show will do once everyone who loved the movie finally sees it.
Like most Gothamist readers, I'm waiting for the adaptation of Blazing Saddles.
I'd rather see his son's work adapted to the stage - The Zombie Survival Manual and World War Z.
Blazing Saddles would have been a much better choice for an adaptation. Still, this is part of a distressing trend of brand expansion shows which are only produced because they are seen as a safe bet for the producers. It is stuff like this that makes revivals seem much better.
It's quite telling that you left out all the positive reviews, which by the way, outnumbered the negative ones. It should be noted that only one really legit paper (The Seattle Times) was somewhat negative.
The very early previews may have had problems, but I saw it twice close to opening night, and found it extremely entertaining, as did the majority of the audience(s) who gave it whooping, standing ovations on both nights.
Mullally, Martin, and Appelgate were standouts, as were a manic Bart and the gentleman who played the Monster. The only weak player was Foster, who played Inga. Great voice, but no comic timing, and a disappearing accent (esp when she sang).
Yes, it perhaps still needs some cutting -- probably 10-15 minutes -- but all in all Brooks has nothing to worry about. It'll win quite a few Tony's and will run for years.