Embattled 'Frankenstein' may still slay the Tonys
While the reviews for "Young Frankenstein" do not come anywhere close to the bouquets tossed Mel Brooks' way six years ago for "The Producers," his new tuner could still triumph at the Tony Awards. Surveying the competition (CLICK HERE for the full report), this show remains out in front. None of the other movies made into musicals — the already opened "Xanadu," in previews "The Little Mermaid," and out-of-town tryouts "A Catered Affair" and "Cry Baby" — come close to the scope and scale of this one. And the only other new musical of the season — "In the Heights" — got good notices in its original off Broadway run last year but could prove to be too gritty for Tony voters with its depiction of life among the Latino community of Washington Heights.
The Tonys are unique among the four big showbiz awards in that certain members of the press who cover the Broadway beat get to vote. Though journos may go for one of the more cerebral shows, like the low-key "A Catered Affair," the biggest bloc of voters remains the producers, including those out-of-towners who want to program crowd pleasers into their theaters out on the road. Therefore, they tend to vote for musicals that have the best tour potential. And "Young Frankenstein" is certainly that. While it may not have been to the critics' liking, the advance sale stands at $30 million and a new block of 100,000 tickets was released today.
While most of the critics panned the show, they praised the performances, singling out Tony winners Sutton Foster, Andrea Martin, and Shuler Hensley. And they acknowledged the sheer size of the production with its three-story set, lavish costumes, and special effect lighting and sound. Their criticism focused on the book and score by Brooks and, at times, on the direction and choreography by Susan Stroman. While the show may not win a record number of Tonys, it should be still be a force to be reckoned with come awards season, despite the so-so notices.
The best review came from Clive Barnes of the New York Post who thought, "Despite music that's more ho-hum than hummable, Brooks's lyrics are bright and witty. Better yet, the book, maintaining virtually all of those iconic quotable quotes, 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.'"
More typical was the reaction of Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times who found, "this fitfully entertaining show, which tickles its audience into reasonably high spirits doesn't quite establish the autonomous existence that 'The Producers,' that other Brooks screen-to-stage transplant, sensationally pulled off. But then that may be setting the bar too high. Sure, the new musical, replete with the kind of pastiche novelty songs that Brooks has made his specialty, has deliciously diverting patches, but too often it leaves us noticeably shy of that laugh-induced state of delirium he has always been better at instigating than sustaining."
Michael Kuchwara of AP says, "You can't help having some fun at 'Young Frankenstein,' especially when you have a parade of expert comedians and musical-theater performers such as Roger Bart, Megan Mullally and Andrea Martin around to strut their stuff. They work hard, sometimes too hard. Comedy, heaven knows, is difficult, but it should look easy. Here, the effort sometimes gets in the way of the laughs." However, for Robert Bianco of USA Today, "If there's fun to be found in 'Young Frankenstein,' Mel Brooks' latest movie-to-Broadway-musical transformation, it's all the result of the giddy, goodwill-laden charms of the original. What worked on film works, for the most part, on stage. It's when the show gets inventive, expansive and, well, musical that it gets into trouble."
As Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News writes, "The show is big and entertaining. But it never matches the delirious thrills of 'The Producers,' whose creative team regrouped to make this monster musical based on Brooks' 1974 horror-film spoof. The book, by Brooks and Thomas Meehan, is filled with all the sight gags and double entendres you could want. It stays close to the movie, without really improving it. A few fresh bits add unexpected laughs. Many of Brooks' songs disappoint, though. They lack the snap and wit he's shown before and do nothing to move the story along. The dancing, by Susan Stroman who also directs, is high-spirited, and the rollicking 'Ritz' routine, lifted from the film, ignites. Other production numbers missed opportunities for inspired craziness."
For Linda Winer of 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."
Finally, Ben Brantley of the New York Times says the show, "has the hardest-working supersize ensemble, led by an amiable but overwhelmed Roger Bart, and the largest percentage of gags per scene. Some of those gags, many of which are lifted from the movie, are pretty funny. (O.K., let’s be honest: I laughed exactly three times.) There are some enjoyable musical routines. (All right, my count is 2 out of nearly 20.) And if the headline stars, Mr. Bart (in the title role) and Megan Mullally (as his Park Avenue fiancée), don’t feel naturally wedded to their roles, the production does offer confirmation of the distinctive, very different talents of Sutton Foster, Shuler Hensley and Andrea Martin."
