Young Frankenstein — Page 3

I don't care much for Kristin Chenoweth (OK, I don't care for her at all), but I must say this role has her name written all over it (Elizabeth, not Inga).

Updated On: 10/11/06 at 03:11 PM

I am so looking forward to this. So, Kristen is doing Elizabeth and Sutton is reading for Inga, that'll be interesting. I'm really looking forward to Roger Bart as I-gor, I've always had a feeling that they would pick him, but I think I'm really excited for Cloris Leachman.

I really hope they name someone for Frankenstein soon. I think that Hugh Jackman would have be an interesting and probably a great choice for Frankenstein. For some reason, I can see Kelsey Grammar as Frankenstein, but I don't know.

So everyone already planning on seeing this based on casting alone...

Is anyone else getting the impression that that's what Mel Brooks is after? Awesome cast that will hopefully make people look beyond what could possibly be not so great material?

I know it's early, and that cast alone definitely makes me want to see it...but I gotta be a little bit cynical about the all star cast.

Drew would be intersting or maybe Norbert Leo Butz. I can't see Hugh Jackman in this role. Gene Wilder was great but he wasn't the classical leading man type that Jackman is. As for Fallon or Cavanaugh, can either of them sing? I'm not trying to insult them but I honestly don't know if either has the voice for a Broadway show. Does anyone know if they are singers?

Kinnear can definitely sing - and dance. He did a great rendition of "Summertime" in that Farrelly Brothers movie about the conjoined twins.

Tom Cavanagh was in the revival of SHENANDOAH and also replaced Hunter Foster in URINETOWN.

Some of the remarks on this thread are pretty hateful and jealous. To say the show is going to stink before the scripts have even been printed is what I would expect from a twelve-year-old kid, which I sometimes suspect there are plenty of around here.

Mel Brooks created a great movie classic and has created a gretest-number-of-Tony-awards-musical based on another of his films. I'd rather be forced to sit through endless performances of "The Producers" with the worst cast imaginable than have to watch a single performane of the two musicals the teenies rave about on this site (R and W).

So give the man some credit, a chance and while you're at it, your respect. If my wife had passed away so sadly and, I suspect, horribly, I'd be in a cave somewhere for years.

Sorry to flame, but for once I'm a little steamed.

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I'm not really sure if we look at the character of Inga in the same way, best12bars, but I understand what you're saying.

Also, I could sort of see Toni Collette or Rachel York as Elizabeth.

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"The film, if you break it down, is a VERY episodic piece, with NO character development."

Oh, MisterRussell...

Very episodic? Agreed. But no more so than the original Universal "Frankenstein" film.

No character development? Don't agree with that at all.

Fredrick Frankenstein faces "who he is," comes to terms with his ancestry, and does a complete change in his beliefs and priorties from the beginning of the story to the end (including his taste in women!).

Elizabeth transforms from the frigid, "perfect" fiancee, into a freaked out Bride for the Monster.

The Monster changes from a childlike creation to a pipe-and-slippers bed partner for his Bride (via a brain transplant).

Inga changes from the innocent Swedish farmgirl into a partner and love interest for Fredrick.


Other than the fact that no one changes skin color or religions during the story, I think it's covered.

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Updated On: 10/12/06 at 12:33 PM

maybe someone already said this (i didn't, admittedly, read every single post in this thread) but what about michael cerveris in the role of dr. f? just a thought...

Jon--That's a very good point! It was an homage and a skewering of a dawning film genre---"The monster movie."

Kinda like "Singin' in the Rain"... which was also an homage and a skewering of a dawning film genre...and didn't work so well on stage.

But The Producers (and Singin'... and even 42nd Street and Sunset Blvd.) would all fall under the "backstage/behind-the-scenes story" category. They all knew they were working on shows or films, as part of their stories.

Young Frankenstein makes ongoing "winks" to the fact that it's spoofing a film, but the actors (as characters) don't go home at the end of the day in the plot, etc.

One of the biggest adjustments for me (as you have pointed out) is going to be seeing this story in COLOR. Something Mel Brooks was so against when making his film. He KNEW it wouldn't work well at all.

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Hunter Foster- for true.

Has Norbert been mentioned for Frankenstein?

I really like the idea of Greg Kinnear.