Review: National Tour of 'The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein'

On Tuesday evening the National Touring Company of "The New Mel Brooks Musical - Young Frankenstein" opened for a 2 week run in Denver. It is inevitable that comparisons between the movie and the musical will be made. And I may make a few!

Needless to say the movie is Iconic. There are a number of lines and scenes that those of us who are fans of the movie know by heart and have laughed at over and over. Those famous scenes are all intact in the musical. However they don't seem to transfer as well to the stage. At times they just seem to fizzle. A few are not even "highlighted", so to speak, they just kind of come and go. The good news is the additions, along with the excellent, cast save the show.

 Unfortunately, as can happen on opening night, the sound was not well adjusted so we missed the lyrics to a lot of songs in the first act. (At least where I was sitting, a lot of people around me were complaining) Kudos to the sound crew for adjusting it for the second act. It was noticeable. We missed a lot of what I am sure were fun lyrics to the opening song "The Happiest Town" and "Roll in the Hay". We were, however able to catch most of the lyrics to "Please Don't Touch Me" a fun number done quite well by Beth Curry who plays Elizabeth. Joanna Glushak as Frau Blucher was a standout in Act 1 performing "He Vas My Boyfriend" to the hilt. One number in the show I have not been very fond of is "Roll in The Hay" however Anne Horak , as Inga, did a fine job with the number and is a quite impressive yodeler!

The entire company appeared to be having a blast onstage. At the opening night performance Chuck Rea took over the roles listed as being played by Brad Oscar (Inspector Kemp and the Hermit). Although the Hermit scene seemed to lose some steam at the end, Mr. Rea was quite funny and delivered one of the more memorable songs in the second act, "Please Send Me Someone". Roger Bart as Frederick Frankenstein (Ok, that's Franken-steen!) and Cory English as Igor were like two kids let loose in a candy store. We knew what we were in for with Mr. Bart after his first entrance which was hysterical. Unfortunately, Mr. Bart spoke softly at times so we lost some of his dialogue. Even knowing what was to come, he had me laughing during the Dungeon scene in act two before going in to "visit" with the monster. And the laughter continued with a short bit between Frankenstein and Igor and with the Monster, played by Rye Mullis.

So, of course, there was that one number that everyone was waiting for. People were singing "Puttin' on the Ritz" in the voice of The Monster outside and in the lobby prior to the show. The number did not disappoint. Starting with Frau Blucher's very funny introduction, we got a full blown production number complete with an eye popping lighting visual midway through that actually left me a bit jaw dropped. And speaking of lighting, if you can't handle strobe lighting, this is not the show for you as it is used quite often.

As far as the sets, I am sure they have been scaled down for the tour. However you can tell that this production didn't skimp on sets. What they couldn't take out on tour was more than adequately replaced, most notably the laboratory.

Susan Stroman also did a wonderful job choreographing the show. It has a vaudeville feel and is executed well by the entire cast.

In the end, this is a fun night at the theater. Great performances and a very likeable score (Better than "The Producers" in my opinion.) Even though some of those lines don't quite land, the show as a whole is pleasing and smile inducing. Sometimes laugh out loud inducing. In the tradition of Mr. Brooks' humor, it is meant to be a bit campy and on that level, it pretty much succeeds.

Young Frankenstein plays the Buell Theater at the Denver Center for the Performing arts now through June 27th. For more information and tickets go to www.denvercenter.org.

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