Mel Brooks is up to his old antics as the creative team of the Tony-winning production of "The Producers" takes on another movie-to-musical challenge. His Broadway-bound version of "Young Frankenstein" pays tribute to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's 1818 tome, delivering Brooks' trademark over-the-top zaniness as he spoofs not only his own 1974 film but showbiz in general with old-fashioned musical theater chutzpah.
The theatrical version, set in 1934 New York City and Transylvania Heights, includes most of the film highlights, but the ending has been reimagined. And if many of the lines sound familiar, you first heard them in the movie.
Although not perfect, "Young Frankenstein" offers an evening packed with the comic maestro's slapstick genius, double-entendres and audacious irreverence. Bottom line, it's an entertaining romp that's bound to tickle ze funny bone.
'Most everyone knows the plotline. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein - pronounced FRONK-en-steen - an eminent American brain scientist, suddenly inherits his grandfather Victor von Frankenstein's castle in Transylvania. When Dr. F decides to inspect his windfall, he says goodbye to his frigid fiancée Elizabeth and takes the express train from NYC to Transylvania Station. Upon arrival he's greeted by a caped hunchback, a sinister housekeeper and a buxom lass. Accidentally stumbling upon old Vic's lab notes, Dr. F decides to continue Grandpa's experiments. All he needs is a healthy brain and a dead body, but things go awry and he creates a monster that sends the local yokels scrambling for pitchforks, torches and clubs. To add to the chaos, Elizabeth makes a surprise visit.
Brooks' music and lyrics may not become Broadway classics, but his specialty songs overflow with silliness and subtext. How can you resist rhymes like "Though your genitalia has been known to fail ya"? And the book collaboration between Brooks and Thomas Meehan also salutes body parts with sexual innuendos galore. Unfortunately, "Young F" has a few so-so routines that either fall flat or go on too long. Otherwise, the musical features an impressive roster of Broadway and television talents, lively dances with leggy chorus girls and boys, plus fabulous sets and dazzling special effects.
Unfair or not, you can't help but compare the stage performers to their film predecessors. Roger Bart and Sutton Foster fall a little short as Dr. FRONK-en-steen and his ditzy lab assistant Inga. Bart faces the daunting challenge of living up to Gene Wilder's celluloid lunacy. Despite their gallant efforts, Bart lacks the comedic dementia of Wilder, and Foster lacks the bimbo-esque sauciness of Teri Garr. Both Bart and Foster are in great voice; they're just not funny enough, especially in the first act - although she does a mean yodel during the hayride scene.
Megan Mullally steps into Madeline Kahn's cinematic slippers as the doctor's stuck-up socialite fiancée Elizabeth, while Shuler Hensley tries on Peter Boyle's clunky platform boots as the 7-foot creature turned song-and-dance monster. Andrea Martin takes over the castle chores from Cloris Leachman as the gloomy housekeeper Frau Blücher, and Christopher Fitzgerald tackles Marty Feldman's sidekick turn as the happy hunchback Igor - Eye-gore to his inner circle.
With a flashier persona than Kahn, Mullally flaunts her comedic chops in two near-showstopping numbers, the uppity "Please Don't Touch Me" and the sexual tell-all "Deep Love," sung after her "Sweet Mystery of Life" climax with "ol' zipperneck" as she rhapsodizes over the monster's enormous schwanzstucker. And in a move that should make Leachman proud, the hilariously dour Martin straddles a chair to pay homage to Dietrich and Sally Bowles in "He Vas My Boyfriend."
Though Fitzgerald and his shifting hump have plenty of funny moments, he's not as amusing as the hilariously bug-eyed Feldman. Hensley gets big laughs during the hulking monster's singing debut, and also when he breaks down into tears, 'cause he just wants to be loved.
But the real showstopper comes in Act Two, thanks to director-choreographer Susan Stroman's sparkling recreation of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz." With the now-dapper monster and Herr Doctor leading a tie-and-tails kick-line that stretches across the entire stage "Chorus Line"-style, the svelte dancers clone creature wannabes in a razzle-dazzle tap extravaganza.
In other scene highlights, the funny Fred Applegate does double duty as the bumbling blind hermit (he even adds a Jolson touch), and the one-eyed, two-limbed constable, Inspector Kemp. Fitzgerald and Bart borrow from Jimmy Durante and those legendary vaudeville hoofers for their buddy duo, "Together Again for the First Time."
Before he inherits Grandpa's castle, Bart, as Dr. F, struts his scientific stuff at the Johns Miriam and Anthony Hopkins School of Medicine in a Rodgers & Hammerstein-inspired spoof, "There Is Nothing Like a Brain." Bart perfectly executes Brooks' tongue-twisting, lickety-split lyrics in a manner reminiscent of Danny Kaye's "Tchaikovsky" feat in "Lady in the Dark."
And yes, the horses, looking like giant stuffed steeds from FOA Schwarz, whinny in terror every time Frau Blücher's name is spoken. In fact, we should shower Erick Jackson and Justin Patterson with fresh carrots. They cleverly channel their inner equine from inside the life-size fuzzy costumes with rearing hoofs, twisting heads and toothy grins.
Designer William Ivey Long creates folksy Tyrolean togs for the townsfolk as well as sexy-chic couture gowns for Mullally and an S&M bustier for Martin. Robin Wagner's sets, Peter Kaczorwski's lighting and Marc Brickman's special effects are marvelous. Of course, the revolving library bookcase reveals a secret passage, while a precarious-looking staircase of faux stone leads to a secret laboratory - complete with cobwebs and towering machines of horror-movie grandeur. Under the beams of a full moon, thunder cracks and lightning flashes ominously while these scientific mechanisms spark, crackle and pop during the corpse-to-monster transformation.
Before making its Broadway bow this fall, "Young F" definitely needs tightening and trimming - especially the 90-minute first act. So something's gotta go. Maybe the dream sequence, "Join the Family Business," with Frankenstein ancestors all sporting Einstein's frizzy-white bob. Or the gift basket shtick - who really cares if the local soaps and cheeses taste alike?
Critics may nitpick, but audiences will love this madcap musical. On press night, Seattle folks gave the cast a huge standing ovation. When Brooks, Meehan and Stroman joined the actors onstage, Brooks expressed his appreciation by inviting 2,300 cheering fans to travel with the production.
Finally, there's a line that perfectly captures Brooks' campy irreverence. With pre-Nazi pomp, Inspector Kemp asks, "Do you know what this town needs?"
To which the village idiot eagerly replies, "A gay bar?"
'YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN'
The Paramount, 911 Pine St.
Tuesday-Sunday through Sept. 1
Tickets: $25-$100, Ticketmaster at 800-292-2787
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