YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Reviews — Page 6

So you got Premium seats at street prices?
Interesting.
I was upstairs and it didn't sound too loud.
But I agree a lot with the TIMES, which I usually don't.
Mostly on making Chris Fitzgerald do those old jokes and not cute.
And I am glad Sutton and Andrea are getting the raves they desreve.

http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=556168

Yeah, I think the critics had it out for Brooks after the phenomenon that was THE PRODUCERS.

I'm going on Tuesday and am still (if not more) as excited as before the reviews came out.

John Simon is a Rave:

"How many Broadway shows offer the chance to watch the lustfully cavorting hero and heroine rise on a gurney above the proscenium arch, there to make love as their undergarments float suggestively to the stage below?

``Young Frankenstein' is such a one and, not coincidentally, it is that much above its nearest competitors. Having won huge success with ``The Producers,' Mel Brooks has turned another of his movies into a stage musical. Unlike the famously mock-terrible ``Springtime for Hitler' in the earlier show, however, ``Young Frankenstein' is meant to be a hit, and a hit it assuredly is..."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601098&sid=a2s69oZ6SYX4&refer=movie

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"Yeah, I think the critics had it out for Brooks after the phenomenon that was THE PRODUCERS."

Yeah, they all got together at their weekly Critics dinner and decided to bash the show. I couldn't make it so they sent me an email and told me to say as well.

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WR:
Yes I did. I wrote about it in the mojito thread. Wasn't crazy about Roger Bart.

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It's only been mentioned as the "obvious" choice because Mel Brooks wrote that it might be done in the lyrics of the finale of YF.

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I'd have to agree with both Variety and NYTimes. Ir's too bad though, I had a great time at the show (though I though it was only mediocre) when I saw it in out of town previews in Seattle and thought they had enough time to tighten it up and edit things here and there. It sounds like they didn't do very much...the runtime is still 2hrs 40min (Act one is waaaaay too long). Still, I'm glad they give Sutton Foster and Andrea Martin recognition. Roger Bart worked for me too.

Still, I agree that this will have a run of several years and is a little critic proof (although I'm not sure if people will fork out over $400 after a while).

Next up...Cry Baby tryout in La Jolla (can't wait).

Hmm, in Seattle the ending line was "We'll make the son of Frankenstein, the sequel's coming soon." Do they still sing that?


I pretty much figured this would get mixed-to-negative reviews, but I don't agree nor do I think it will hurt the show. WICKED, anyone? Another huge show in a giant house that got not so great reviews but doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

I saw the show's ninth or tenth tryout performance in Seattle and dropped back in here tonight to see the tenor of the reviews. They're more negative than I expected! Because I thought the show's problems were very apparent in Seattle, and eminently fixable... and I was sure Stroman & Co. would attend to business before opening night.

It doesn't sound like much has changed since Seattle. Certainly not enough. I wrote back in August that while the cast was working like crazy, and mostly doing great, YF's issues were (A) bloat and (B) failure to rise about dutiful recitation of fave bits from the movie. Act I was 20 minutes too long and leaden, and audience fatigue had set in long before we finally got to "Puttin' on the Ritz", which is the third or fourth interminable, stage-jamming showstopper, deep in Act II. And reenacting intimate cinema-frame moments fell flat in Seattle's Paramount, a pretty big house... it doesn't sound like they work any better at the Hilton.

The Seattle audiences did go nuts for YF, bloat and all, but bear in mind that we never see staging like this out here. Mostly we get touring companies with "sets" that can be rolled up and UPS'd to the next town. The sledgehammer spectacle of the thing knocked Seattlites out, but on Broadway it gets YF compared to a Disney theme park show.

I'm really sorry YF hasn't been tightened and brightened in the three months since its out-of-town run... a ruthless scalpel could've led to better notices. And I'm double sorry that Roger Bart is taking it on the chin, because I thought he was working his heart out and was just terrific (Mullally: another story). I just don't think it's his fault. It's the dead, know-it-by-heart book (the hermit scene, lifted line for line from the movie, packs all the surprise of a school Nativity play), and the impulse to shovel on still more dance numbers as half the house starts to fret about PATH / LIRR schedules. You should leave 'em wanting more, Mel, not checking their watches in the dark.

-- Sorry from Seattle

Updated On: 11/9/07 at 02:24 AM

I won't get started on the Pirate Queen cast/crew's celebrations that must be going on tonight.
Yippie! This is making my night.

Oh yes. I'm sure they're celebrating that a show that is not even close as embarrasingly bad as theirs, kicked their smelly musical out of the theatre. And also because they will make a huge amount of money that PQ investors wishes they could had ever made... wherever they're "celebrating", I'm sure it burns!

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"WICKED, anyone? Another huge show in a giant house that got not so great reviews but doesn't seem to be going away any time soon."

WICKED is still playing to packed houses because people feel passionately about it. I highly doubt YF is going to whip anybody into a frenzy. DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS is probably a better comparison. Some people thought it was funny, but clearly not enough to sustain a huge run.

My guess is that once the material is left in the hands of people who can't milk a joke like Andrea Martin or Megan Mullaly, the word of mouth is going to be pretty bad.