Combine the same ingredients that worked so brilliantly in The Producers, and you'll get similar results, right? Well, not exactly. Young Frankenstein, the musical based on the hit 1974 Mel Brooks film, doesn't pack the same emotional wallop as its predecessor, The Producers.
The reasons why YF fails to gel aren't immediately apparent. And the Broadway version, which opened in November 2007 and closed in January 2009, doesn't really give many clues. The designers and cast were all top-notch Broadway veterans. So why would this musical attract an incredible range of mixed reviews from "brilliant" to "awful?" And why did it fail to receive even one Tony Award?
Questions aside, the national tour of YFhas broken free from its chains and is wandering across the United States. In Milwaukee's week-long run, Christopher Ryan stars as the movie's Gene Wilder character, a serious American scientist who "joins the family business" when an ancestor back from the grave encourages him to give it a try. Preston Truman Boyd is The Monster, Synthia Link is the coquettish lab assistant, Inga, Joanna Glushak is the indomitable Frau Blucher, and Cory English is the hunchback-like Igor (he played the same role on Broadway). Janine Devita is gratingly divine as the younger Frankenstein's fiancé, Elizabeth, and David Benoit delights as Transylvania's imperious, one-man security force, Inspector Kemp.
The timing for Young Frankenstein's appearance in Milwaukee could not have been more perfect the week after Halloween. The opening number, performed on a dark, rainy night that's interspersed with thunder, lightning and wolf howls, put the audience in a terrific mood to see the creepy events that followed. The large cast gives an impressively brisk and fresh-looking performance. Choreography by Susan Stroman is particularly stunning, and it's clear she had a hand in the special effects as well.
Some of the songs are outright clunkers. But a few are impressively crafted, such as the funny "Roll in the Hay," the deadpan "He Vas My Boyfriend" (sung by Frau Blucher) and the upbeat production number, "Transylvania Mania." The show's highlight is a recreation of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz," which builds and builds to a glorious climax (no, not that kind of climax although Mel Brooks would certainly view it that way). It seems as though every member of this large cast dons top-hat and tails by the time the song ends.
Low-brow humor and sexual sight gags abound perhaps too much. But Mel Brooks stays true to the movie's plot and the type of goofy, cornball and unique humor for which he has become famous.
