Young Frankenstein-Tonys...What Happened?

I would like to get other Broadway fans opinion about why Young Frankenstein was passed over for even a nomination for Best Musical, Best Actor in a musical (Bart), Best score for a musical?

My personal opinion is that this score was much better than The Producers score and that Mel Brooks had really grown in his composition since that show. The score contains all styles of music, but songs such as Let My Creature Live and He's Loose were brilliiant dramatic songs, along with those great originals like Please Don't Touch Me, Roll in the Hay, and He Van My Boyfriend were excellent comedic skill, Deep Love, Listen to your Heart and Please Send me Someone excellent balleds, Man About Town, Transylvania Mania and Together again great showstoppers with a slice of vaudeville. I got the CD the day it came out and , being serious, have listened to it every day since, it's in my car and on my Ipod.

I just don't get it. I am so disappointed in the nominating board and votees that I am so down on the Tony's I don't feel like even watching. Do you think this was a snub? Why not any of those catagories? I'd sure like to hear from other Broadway fans what they think, maybe I won't be so darn angry. Could it be because The Producers swept the Tony's last time?

If indeed this was because of that, or because they charged a high price for front orchestra tickets or some other political reason, then a real tragedy has occured. Personally I think the score was brilliant.

Updated On: 5/17/08 at 03:48 PM

There's a lot of reasons it didn't get many nominations.

The first of which is that the show didn't get reviews as good as those for The Producers. A lot of people seemed to like it, but the general consensus for the show is more negative than positive.

Also, Mel Brooks didn't do himself any favors with the $450 premium seating. I don't know if that was Brooks' decision, but with his name splashed all over the marquee he was gonna take any flack associated with it. Submitting the show to the Tonys as The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein also worked against him -- it seemed quite le arrogant.

But much like the Oscars -- yes, it's political. Because there's no hard and fast system to judge the merit of shows, it's gonna come down to people's opinions, and people are never objective.

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I liked YF, and let me just say, I do not think the show was snubbed at all.

YF had an amazing set, not to mention two strong featured actors: Chris Fitzgerald and Andrea Martin. All three of those were nominated in their categories.

I have read a lot of people say the score is pretty forgettable. It is basically another Producers score with new jokes inserted (and I did pick up a lot of Producers references, which is because, well duh, its Brooks). The show did have a lot of fun songs, but some were just your generic show tune in the style of Mel Brooks.

Regarding Best Musical - was it really worthy of being the BEST? Sure, there is also a lot of debate as to whether Cry-Baby deserved that spot, but it seems as if people here would have liked to see A Catered Affair take that spot instead.

And Robert Bart's performance was just okay. He's a hilarious guy, but I think the other cast members outshone him.

Again, I've said this before, I don't really see the disappointment. I thought this was expected among the majority of people. Sadly, it is true that a lot of people wanted this show to fail. While YF didn't get a gajillion Tony noms, I think it deserves what it got nominated for.

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I agree with you Millie on Mel's arrogence, but my point is that it is sad that anything like that should come into play when really deciding which was best. The best score is the one I don't get. I don't feel it is anything like the Producers at all, it is a much more mature score. Producers had nothing like "let my creature live" a beautiful almost operetic song, or "he's loose", a highly driven dramatic movement, or vaudeville like Together Again. I think Young Frankenstein's score is completely different from The Producers and miles ahead of it and a much more mature score.

Oh well, just my opinion. Thanks everyone for posting your comments. I just couldn't figure this out. YF is my favorite score of the last 10 years. I am sad to see that the politics come into play, or the fact that Mel's arrogence does, that's just who Mel is and always has been, but it doesn't mean his score was not worthy and brilliant, and when voting, it's a shame that people don't vote on merit alone rather than such things as arrogence, ticket prices and such.

Updated On: 5/17/08 at 04:26 PM

Tonys, love, they're not a diner.

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I don't think the score is brilliant but I do think that it's more worthy of a Tony nomination than CRY-BABY's score...and same for book.


I personally would have liked the score nominees to be YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, A CATERED AFFAIR, IN THE HEIGHTS, PASSING STRANGE or even THE LITTLE MERMAID.


And as for book, CRY-BABY's slot should have been taken by A CATERED AFFAIR and if not ACA, then YF.


YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is much better than CRY-BABY and the Tony nominations should have reflected that.

A lot of people have it out for Mel Brooks which surely hurt it's chances.

Updated On: 5/17/08 at 04:41 PM

"What happened? the show was written. it was produced. it came to Broadway. there are three decent reasons, to start with..."

Not sure if I know what you mean, TooDarnHot???

A self-admitted fan of the score from "The Producers", I was surprised and disappointed that Mel couldn't seem to find a single melody for his "Young Frankenstein" score. It's completely forgettable.

I remember reading the liner notes included with the cast recording, thinking, "God, how much did they pay this guy to gush and brag about such mediocre material?".

Everyone expected the show to be the next THE PRODUCERS and it just wasn't.

Even with its worst cast, THE PRODUCERS was immesurably more entertaining than YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, the bloated, overblown spectacle.

Gene Wilder said it best: Mel attempted to put his standard borscht belt humor and shtick (and if anyone doesn't know what borscht belt humor and shtick are, do a Google search) into a property that in no way had room for them.

There were 11 ties this year. A Catered Affair lost to Cry-Baby in the "Best Musical" category by 1 vote.

Keep that in mind, as well.

I don't think YF was snubbed. I think it got exactly the recognition it deserved. The score, while not awful, is very ho-hum and forgettable; many of the songs don't advance the plot and are there simply as padding. Roger Bart, as great an actor as he is, was hamming it up to ridiculous proportions and even seemed to be channeling Carmen Ghia at times. Sutton Foster's tremendous talent is completley wasted, but the wonderful Chris Fitzgerald and Andrea Martin rightfully were recognized with nominations. The magnificent set also got a nomination.

And like somebody said, Mel certainly didn't help himself out by officialy submitting the show as "The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein".

I remember reading the liner notes included with the cast recording, thinking, "God, how much did they pay this guy to gush and brag about such mediocre material?".

OMG, those notes were a trip! I especially love the part where he likens Mel Brooks to Frank Loesser, Cole Porter, Jerry Herman and Irving Berlin. I think Mel's got a long way to go before he can be included with those guys!

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I didn't think it was too terrible. It was pretty entertaining and I think it deserved two more nominations: one for choreography and one for score. Hell, even one for costumes. I just don't see how voters thought TLM score was better than YF's.

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I also will toss in my two cents, in that case. Personally, while YF wasn't as exhilarating as THE PRODUCERS was for me, I thought it still had quite bit of merit and was far from disappointing. However, purely because of Mel's name and the controversial ticket price, it was already a tough sell. Now, compound that with the fact that road show producers and the like know that they'll be able to sell YF and MERMAID on tour without awards (since they're already proven blockbuster hits with movie recognition), and you have an easy case of snubbing in favor of shows that will need the Tony awards as a boost to bolster their national tour appeal. Again, just an affirmation that the Tonys are nothing but political games stripped of all artistic value. CBS would be fools if they didn't let YF and TLM (the 2 bigest box office draws on Broadway) perform on the telecast.

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