FRANKENSTEIN Reviews

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 10:49pm

Talkin Broadway is Negative -- VERY Negative:

"Of the countless questions inspired by the new musical Frankenstein, the two most pressing are this: How did men find so much time to go to the gym in the 1700s? And where did they find gyms?

The rippling abs and pulsating pecs Steve Blanchard bares throughout Mark Baron and Jeffrey Jackson's bombastic new musical at 37 Arts are indeed impressive. Whether his character, the tortured and ungodly reanimated progeny of Victor Frankenstein, is stalking and murdering his way through Europe or even luring his creator to the frigid Arctic for a final epic showdown, rest assured that Blanchard's shirt invariably stays open.

Whether this was a make-or-break rider in Blanchard's contract to compensate for years of hiding behind furry prosthetics in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast is an issue best hashed out by Blanchard's agents. But the hopeless mess surrounding Blanchard, which more readily resembles Boris Karloff in the famous 1931 Frankenstein film than it does Abercrombie & Fitch, is everyone's problem.

Jackson (book and lyrics) and Baron (music) have gone to extravagant lengths in interviews to tout their fidelity to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's early 19th-century novel, a suspenseful cautionary tale about man's disastrous inclination to play God. But in working from Gary P. Cohen's original story adaptation, the authors have done little more than prove the consummate value that often exists in deviating from the source material. Just about every other version, from Karloff's classic to Mel Brooks's hilarious 1974 tweak Young Frankenstein (the stage version of which opens on Broadway next week), has located more of Shelley's heart and soul.

This Frankenstein is absorbed, as are so many of today's musicals, with pretty people power belting emotional nonsense."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/11_01_07.html

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 10:54pm

The AP is Positive:

"Playing the serious Victor is a departure for Foster, best known for his comic turns in "Urinetown," "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Producers," yet he is completely captivating in his portrayal of the tortured scientist whose creation brings not acclaim, but despair.

No comic romp, this is a sincere and faithful retelling of the Mary Shelley novel "Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus."

The story's hard edges are reflected in the cold and industrial scenic design by Kevin Judge. Two metal mesh staircases — one short and one tall — dominate the stage, which also makes elegant use of projection screens to enhance the various locations or illustrate the passage of time. The lighting, by Thom Weaver, is starkly atmospheric, and, despite being slightly reminiscent of a heavy-metal arena concert, quite effective as well.

The spare set contrasts effectively with the beautiful 18th-century costumes by Emily Pepper — Christiane Noll's gowns are particularly lovely — and leaves the storytelling, which is almost all sung-through, to the universally talented cast. The hard-edged pop score, by Mark Baron, is heavy on the orchestration, despite the use of only six musicians. Most melodies are stuffed with lyrics (by Jeffrey Jackson, who also wrote the book) in pattern-song style..............

This "Frankenstein" brings the classic story thrillingly to life. No green giant, but you will not miss him.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/01/arts/NA-A-E-STG-US-Frankenstein.php

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 10:59pm

Theatremania is Negative:

"Note to Mary Shelley fans: Frankenstein, the musical adaptation of the lady's 1818 novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, beats Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein to the starting bell if not to the punch. The Jeffrey Jackson-Mark Baron effort certainly doesn't beat Brooks to the punchline, because the creators are in no mood to be satirical. Working from an adaptation by Gary P. Cohen of the original story, they've made an attempt to be as faithful as possible to Shelley's ultra-solemn cautionary tale. The intention may be honorable, but the results are as lumbering as the Frankenstein monster's gait.
_______________________________________________________________

To heighten the unrelenting sturm and drang -- as if it needed to be heightened -- Jackson and Baron have ordered by the yard from the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Frank Wildhorn catalog. Even if you haven't heard these obstreperous anthems and threnodies before, you've heard them before. The songsmiths do pay an extra tribute to Mary Shelley by calling one of the many ditties "The Modern Prometheus." On the other hand, they do her no favor by being ungrammatical, as in this clumsy lyric: "Love can weather any storm/If you trust in you and I." Both Dr. Frankenstein and the creature get to hammer the audience over the head with ham-fisted laments.
________________________________________________________________

Curiously, this Frankenstein -- which includes the sung phrase "Who dares to act as God?" -- might be taken nowadays as an endorsement of the far right's stand against stem-cell research. That may not be the authors' purpose, but there it is. More to the point, though, this Bill Fennelly-directed Frankenstein -- constructed of implants from other musicals -- is like Shelley's creature: well-meant but only an awkward facsimile of the real thing.

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/11957

[jbdc]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 11:02pm

Times teaser:

“I passed a night of unmingled wretchedness,” pants the tortured title character in one of many a palpitating passage in Mary Shelley’s gothic novel “Frankenstein.” After passing a similar night, courtesy of the new musical version of Shelley’s tale, I can only say, “Victor, buddy, I know where you’re coming from.” The new Off Broadway adaptation of the classic monster story is not to be confused with a rather more highly anticipated Broadway production opening next week a few blocks uptown, name of “The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein.” It is not likely to be. With nary a shriek, of either humor or horror, in its drably earnest two hours of throaty sturm und drang, this version will probably not get much of an updraft from Mr. Brooks’s coattails either. — Charles Isherwood

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 11:02pm

The NewarK Star-Ledger is Negative:

"Considering how "Frankenstein" centers on the forging of a man-made creature, it's bitterly ironic that this ambitious new musical refuses to blaze into life.

Thunder. Smoke. Discordant music. And the poor stiff just lies there.

Despite the valiant efforts of a solid company and the earnest intentions of writers determined to musicalize a story closer to Mary Shelley's 1816 original than subsequent Hollywood variations, "Frankenstein" was dead on arrival at 37 Arts, where the off-Broadway show was unveiled tonight.

A serious-minded treatment of the saga about a scientist whose bungled attempt to create a man backfires hideously and haunts him for the rest of his days, the musical has been constructed with a sober book and lyrics by Jeffrey Jackson and gloomy music by Mark Baron.

There is conscientious craft to their effort but, sadly, little in the way of inspiration. "


http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2007/11/frankenstein_tries_to_raise_a.html

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 11:25pm

Variety is Negative (and funny):

"Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein" has been recycled again and again through the centuries and will presumably wind up as a hit stage tuner one of these days. But this ain't it. We refer to the new musical "Frankenstein," not the new Mel Brooks musical "Young Frankenstein," opening Nov. 8. The first to face the critical firing line might better be called "Old Frankenstein," or perhaps "Olde Frankenstein." The creators clearly have their eyes on "Les Miserables," but instead have landed on the heap with other Gothic monster-tales-turned-musicals like "Dracula," "Dance of the Vampires," "Lestat" and "Jekyll & Hyde."

"Frankenstein" comes from a first-time composer, first-time lyricist/librettist, first-time director, first-time choreographer and six first-time producers. Not their first shows ever -- everybody concerned has a paragraph-length bio -- but their first major New York credits. This in itself is no indication of either quality or lack of it, but under the circumstances is worthy of note. Everyone involved seems to be very much in earnest, and they deserve credit for getting their opus on in a first-class, Off Broadway production.

But there's little on view, other than some aspects of the physical production, that impresses. The score, by Mark Baron and Jeffrey Jackson, is of the Frank Wildhorn school only without strong melody. There are brief sections where things start to sound interesting, but they are lost in the mix and blasted by the sound system. The lyrics have their moments, but let's leave it at that (and gloss over such gems as "Do you like being my nanny?"/"It's a far more challenging job than many.").....................

Steve Blanchard, a long-time Beast for the Disney folk, has apparently been instructed to play the Creature as if he's the Elephant Man just back from the gym.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935286.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 11:45pm

Newsday is Negative (ouch):

"Frankenstein," which opened Off-Broadway Thursday night at 37 Arts, is not a parody in the style of Mel Brooks' impending "Young Frankenstein." Nor is the new musical a campy comedy, a potboiling thriller or a monster mash in homage to almost two centuries crammed with plays, musicals, movies, TV adaptations and spin-offs inspired by Mary Shelley's Gothic novel of 1818.

In fact, this one is not even a horror show. It is, however, horrible.

Author-lyricist Jeffrey Jackson and composer Mark Baron have approached the original with dead - make that deadly - seriousness. Even poor Hunter Foster, a baby-faced satirical hero from "Urinetown" and the last revival of "Little Shop of Horrors," cannot re-animate a project that makes overblown musical claptrap by Frank Wildhorn seem like genius.............

Shelley didn't imagine Frankenstein's creation as a Boris Karloff monster. We suspect, however, that she also didn't see him as a shirtless aging rocker (Steve Blanchard) who obviously goes to the gym way too much and who staggers, pigeon-toed, in a fashionably tattered leather morning coat (otherwise sober period costumes by Emily Pepper) and gets to bellow such inspirational lines as "Follow me to the Baltic!" without cracking up.......

We leave not thinking of "Young Frankenstein," but wondering what fun Mel Brooks could make of this.





http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etplay5440784nov02,0,4747543.story

[rclocalz]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 12:10am

These reviews are starting to hurt my eyes a bit. Wow, not a hit at all.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 1:09am

The "aging rock star" comment is so right on.

[WestVillage]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 9:22am

Not at all surprised at all the negative reviews (Daily News was also a pan). The show was dreadful.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 9:38am

How is the show selling? I thought bad reviews would kill Walmartopia, but it's still running and getting recorded.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 9:49am

The Daily News is Negative:

"It's a fright all right, the new Off-Broadway "Frankenstein."

Just in all the wrong ways.

Bombastic and mind-boggling, the musical misfire, which opened last night at 37 Arts, ransacks Mary Shelley's gothic classic.

No one, creators and cast alike, comes out looking good at the end of two hours.

Book writer Jeffrey Jackson and adapter Gary P. Cohen siphon all the juice from the source material. Major events - whether it's awakening the dead, a fire, a wedding, a murder - all are rendered with the same drive-by insignificance.

A collection of 20 vaguely pop-oriented songs by Mark Baron (music) and Jackson (lyrics) form a forgettable blur and add no dimension or drama."


http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/culture/2007/11/02/2007-11-02_frankenstein_is_a_monster_of_a_bore.html

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 10:33am

The NY Post gives it One Star:

"'FRANKENSTEIN" - the off-Broadway musical that opened last night and has nothing to do with Mel Brooks - is a serious take on the Mary Shelley classic, and it would be fun to report that it's so bad, it might rival its competitor in terms of sheer, if unintentional, laughs.

Unfortunately, this "Frankenstein" is bad in an all-too-earnest way - it's deadly dull, rather than a campy hoot. The ineptness of its execution is matched only by the cynicism of its creators' intentions. It's hard to imagine that anyone reads the book these days and thinks, "There's a musical in this!"

Solemn and semi-operatic in the manner of Frank Wildhorn's "Jekyll & Hyde," this "Frankenstein" is mainly notable for its faithfulness to its source material.

Thus, the monster here isn't a grunting, green gorgon, but an articulate, hunky figure in a distressed leather jacket, his bared chest and six-pack abs indicating that being one of the living dead has in no way made him cut down on his exercise routine.

The ponderous, ballad-heavy score by Mark Baron (music) and Jeffrey Jackson (book and lyrics) includes such aptly titled songs as "Why?" and "The Waking Nightmare."


http://www.nypost.com/seven/11022007/entertainment/theater/monstrously_bad_634679.htm

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 10:55am

The Hartford Courant is Negative:

"What "Frankenstein," the new musical produced by a team headed by Douglas C. Evans, desperately requires is a postmodern Prometheus to breathe a spark of life into the tiresome proceedings.

The handsomely produced and strongly cast show, which opened Thursday night at 37 Arts, follows the 1818 Mary Woll- stonecraft Shelley novel far more closely than the familiar movie versions. But this only demonstrates why the 1931 film by James Whale made so many changes, to become an entirely different work that can be watched again and again.

Working from a story adaptation by Gary P. Cohen, composer Mark Baron and librettist-lyricist Jeffrey Jackson have come up with a humorless and dramatically inert morality tale about the hazards of tampering with human life. The music seemingly aspires to echo Andrew Lloyd Webber, but "The Phantom of the Opera" offers much more variety. As the evening grinds by, the songs all begin to sound alike. Jackson's lyrics do not help at all, as they range from merely pedestrian to ludicrous. The words reach their low point late in Act 2, when the murderous Creature must call out "These Hands" again and again, resulting in giggles from some audience members."

http://www.courant.com/entertainment/stage/reviews/hc-frankensteinrev.artnov02,0,2127509.story

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 11:01am

Here's the link for the full Isherwood review in the Times:

"It is only fair to note that unmingled wretchedness is, like beauty, in the eye and ear of the beholder. For those who sorely miss the halcyon days when Frank Wildhorn ruled Broadway — or at least arrived there with mystifying regularity — “Frankenstein,” with music by Mark Baron and book and lyrics by Jeffrey Jackson, will perhaps come as a big, bellowing hunk of musical manna.

Mr. Wildhorn composed the music for stage versions of both “Jekyll & Hyde” and “Dracula.” His turgid, mostly camp-free approach to those Famous Gothic Tales appears to be the model from which Mr. Baron and Mr. Jackson are working — the corpse they are trying to reanimate, dare I say?
________________________________________________________________

The musical’s other major character is, of course, Frankenstein’s handiwork, referred to here as the “Creature” and played by Steve Blanchard. For all their talk of fidelity to the original text, the show’s authors have departed radically from it in this piece of casting. In the novel the Creature’s looks inspire instant horror. Here he is defiantly unseamed and devoid of chunky neck jewelry that Boris Karloff wore in the famous movie. With hairless pecs and buzz cut, this Creature would probably be a man magnet on a Saturday night in Chelsea.

Of course hunks can suffer too, and while his singing is uneven, Mr. Blanchard makes a strenuous attempt to embody the tormented soul of his character, drawn to humanity but repulsive to it. Roaming the stage in something between a swagger and a stagger, he twists himself into contorted poses meant to convey both physical and spiritual anguish. But I’m afraid it looked more to me like the Creature was fighting through a fearsome case of constipation. "


http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/theater/reviews/02fran.html

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 11:07am

So im guessing that they dont like it lol

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 11:11am

My rule of thumb is if the review ends with the word "constipation," it's a pan.

But that's just me.

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 11:13am

And if any paragraph ever begins with "Mr. Wildhorn..."

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 11:21am

LOL! Excellent, Mr. Calvin.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 12:27pm

Too bad not a single review took note of Steve Blanchard's body.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 12:41pm

aww it makes me wanna see it now!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 12:55pm

Here's a picture. Now save your money.

[Pippin]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 12:58pm

blah.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 1:04pm

Doesn't that photo suggest a sort of kinky KING AND I, with another verb substituted for "dance" after "Shall we...?"

[Macy2]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 3:03pm

Holy cow! These are terrible. Any bets on when this thing closes?