Goodbye Young Frankenstein

[Broadway212]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 11:33pm

I want to start a goodbye thread for Young Frankenstein. It was a show I was not that excited to see but from the minute the band started playing I was hooked and could not wait to go see it again. I loved this show I saw it countless times and it never got old. In my own opinion it should be on broadway a lot longer that only a little over a year.
Updated On: 1/2/09 at 11:33 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 11:47pm

I liked this show a lot more than most. It is really a great lesson in how not to produce a Broadway show. Young Frankenstein is my favorite film comedy ever. I think the stage adaptation was a faithful adaptation with plenty of laughs. It was just so hard for many audiences to see past the ego involved. And I don't blame them.

[Broadway212]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 11:50pm

I can see how people got annoyed with the ticket prices but I also know that Mel Brooks really gave people back every penny they spent. I did not stop laughing once I thought it was the best musical of 2008.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 1/2/09 at 11:55pm

I saw this show twice and thoroughly enjoyed it. Too bad the high ticket prices in the beginning did not help the show. I will miss it.

[clever name]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 12:08am

I really had fun at this show and often listen to the OBCR. I'm sorry that it was doomed from the start.

[mc1227]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:09am

I agree that it was not marketed correctly but the show, imo, was not as God awful as made out to be on this board. It wasn't the greatest by far, but it wasn't awful either. Good luck to the cast in the future!!

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:11am

Certainly not a terrible show, and the set was incredible.

However, not as good as The Producers, and lacking in star power. Which were the show's two biggest problems: it was inevitably going to be compared to The Producers, and there were no stars here to push the mediocre material over the top.

[mc1227]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:15am

Good point Adam. It did face adversity early on with The Producers comparisons and then the ticket price thing really sealed the distain from audience members. When this show was being put together, there was talk that Mel had promised the lead to Matthew Broderick and then later renegged. Not sure if that really happened or not.

However, in these tough economic times, I'm not sure if even a star draw could have saved it.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:01am

Megan was great :)

[Winston3]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:07am

When I saw this show I went in there thinking that I wasn't going to like it. I was curious about it and tried and won the lotto. I went in with the mindset that if I didn't like it I didn't spend that much money on it so I wasn't going to worry about it either way. I did end up having a good time at the theatre. It was better then I expected but I still didn't enjoy it as others on this thread have. While I did see it once which was enough for me I can see why people liked it and enjoyed it.

I am sorry to see a show that has made other people more happy then I was at the theatre. I am even more sorry for the fact that Spider-Man is going to take its place. As much as Young Frankenstein was a take it or leave it show for me. I would take it in a heartbeat so long as it was preventing Spider-Man from coming to Broadway.

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:07am

sutton was great too!!! :)
never got to see megan.. she was on vacation when I went, everyone else was original though, and I must say, they were EXCELLENT! even Megan's understudy was awesome!!!!
Love "Roll in ze Hay!!"

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:12am

...wish I had seen this one, but missed out on account of budget =[
I guess either Sutton or Megan would have been OK for me...they are both great.

[HBBrock]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 5:05am

This was actually my favorite show on Broadway. I thought every aspect of the show was fantastic. It's too bad the egos and prices turned so many people off. The producers will learn.

[justafan2]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 7:08am

I saw this show 5 times and wish it could've been more---I enjoyed it so much!

[Mamie]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 7:45am

I saw the show about a week after opening and I thought it was cute and entertaining but nothing to write home about. I never had a desire to see it again until this past July when I brought my niece to NY. She wanted to see it so we got a couple of tickets at TKTS and ended up sitting in the last row of the mezzanine. It turned out that this was a great place to see the show. (My first seat - in the orchestra - was far too close). My niece and I laughed our fool heads off. It was great! I just hadn't anticipated the show improving that much since the opening. It's a shame that people allowed their distaste for the producer to affect their opinions of the show.

(For what it's worth, Megan was my least favorite performer in the show. She was in it both times and all I saw was her playing Karen again - with a poorly executed upper crust accent added. Is she unable to play any other character anymore?)

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 11:55am

Megan Mullally, Christopher Fitzgerald, and Andrea Martin made that show. So glad i got to see all three of them. I absolutely enjoyed the show.

[AbbyNormal13]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:11pm

I'm really going to miss it too. This might sound really weird, but in a way, this show has kind of helped me with my first semester away at college in NY, about 3,000 miles away from home, just because I knew every weekend I could try the lotto and see my favorite show. If that makes any sense at all.
Updated On: 1/3/09 at 01:11 PM

[Parsley]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 1:51pm

with those ridiculous ticket prices I must say I am not that sad about its demise. I applaud the potential audiences for voting with their feet on this and not going to see it re: daft prices

Updated On: 1/3/09 at 01:51 PM

[wdwfreak]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:09pm

i am so sad that this show is closing. i will be able to say me real goodbye tomorrow at the closing night performance. It was one of those shows that always could make you laugh. Btw does anyone think that maybe some of the original cast members will come back (chris fitzgerald, andrea martin, megan mullally). it would be cool if they all showed up like nikki snelson showed up for lbbs last show

[Elke]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:40pm

I second what most people have been saying... I'm going to miss this show a LOT. Since I live in Europe, I unfortunately won't be able to attend tomorrow's closing night, but I'm really happy that I managed to travel to NYC multiple times to see it. Such a talented cast in a truly enjoyable show.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/3/09 at 2:45pm

Throughly enjoyed it. It was too bad Brook's ego got in the way. If this had been his first show or had been done by someone else, I think the results may have been much different.

[Broadway212]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 3:02am

I wish Mel Brooks could have gotten another big name so this show does not have to close I am really going to miss it.

[Broadway212]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 8:38pm

I did not get to see the last Young Frankenstein show. Did anyone attend if so how was it?

[jennamajig]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 9:14pm

Wasn't expecting much when a friend and I tried lotto last Feb. We won and I figured $26 wasn't too much to see a great set.

And it was an impressive set! And, to be honest, I enjoyed the show a lot more than I thought I would. It was no Producers (which I loved), but Andrea Martin and Christopher Fitzgerald more than made my $26 worth it. Also enjoyed Sutton. Thought Roger Bart was a little too much over the top, though.

Somehow, despite the financial losses on this one, I don't know if we've seen the last of Mel Brooks on Broadway (not sure if that is a good or bad thing).

[mc1227]

Posted: 1/4/09 at 9:41pm

Mamie:

That is one of the cutest babies I've ever seen...