Review: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Is Monstrously Funny at Elmwood Playhouse

It’s a standard part of the Broadway musical blueprint that a well-rounded score includes at least one or two songs that provide comic relief. After all, even eulogies dispense humor about the departed to solace mourners. 

As the composers of Les Miserables (Alan Boublil and Claude Michel-Schonberg) demonstrated, even musicalizing a historical event as heavy as the French Revolution leaves room for comic relief (“Master of the House”). 

In the case of Broadway musical Young Frankenstein, leave it to its mad creator, the redoubtable laugh machine Mel Brooks, to invert that calculus  -- he affords the audience a break from the cascading guffaws by sneaking in a few semi-serious numbers to what is otherwise a cornucopia of comedic songs, rife with his inimitable wordplay, one-liners and all-hands-on-deck production numbers that mimic Broadway at its brashest with a winning blend of affection and satire.

Audiences aching from laughing are the proof of concept, evidenced by the Broadway-ification of cult Brooks movies The Producers and Young Frankenstein. 

Now through Sept. 28, the latter is getting the rollicking workout its rich material deserves at Elmwood Playhouse in Nyack (N.Y.). Brooks wrote the music and lyrics and co-wrote the book with Thomas Meehan. 

One example of how Brooks balances the mostly jokey (yet quite tuneful) score with seemingly sober numbers is torch song “He Vas My Boyfriend,” delivered by Frau Blucher, played by a wonderfully mysterious and foreboding Tamara Alexander. She infuses the song with a smoky passion that would make Marlene Dietrich proud. Even here, though, the joke is within reach, as Alexander’s hand movements stroking her torso are a laughter trigger, as are naughty lyrics like those describing a racy croquet game – “He carried his hoops and mallets and I carried his balls,” she sings, totally deadpan, in a husky register. 

Blucher is singing about her deceased boyfriend Victor Von Frankenstein, the mad scientist of Transylvania infamous for unleashing a laboratory-hacked monster on the citizenry. As the story begins, the townfolk are celebrating the not-so-good doctor’s timely demise. 

Enter Victor’s grandson Frederick Frankenstein (Miguel Acevedo), who’s arrived to tidy up the Frankenstein estate. He starts off with no interest in monster-making, wanting only to get the legal papers in order and get back to his fiancée at home. That all-business focus soon gives way to his being convinced to “Join the Family Business,” a big, old-fashioned production number, set to the beat of a march, with James Lugo as the ghost of Victor Von Frankenstein leading the ensemble.

Frederick already has been pitched on picking up where Victor left off by the gnomish Igor (Tom Beck, Jr.). Along for the ride (including a hayride) is lab assistant Inga (Grace Callahan), who becomes enamored of Frederick, and vice versa. So much for his fiancée. 

Frederick follows in his grandfather’s footsteps by making a monster from such available body parts as a brain named Abby Normal. The Monster (Mario Andres) runs rampant through town, and in the end… well, let’s just say Mr. Brooks grafts his own Broadway-friendly ending on the legendary horror tale told by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

The Elmwood cast, directed with the requisite command of comic timing and savvy stagecraft by Director and Choreographer Jason Sommers, is comprised of an impressive array of skilled performers who seem to be enjoying their over-the-top antics as much as the audience does. 

Even the song titles bear the puckish stamp of Brooksian humor. For instance, “The Happiest Town in Town.” Or he might subvert the obligatory romantic ballad in the Broadway musical canon with a number like “Please Don’t Touch Me,” which also invites physical comedy as Victor Frankenstein’s fiancée Elizabeth Benning (Christine Gnieski) eludes every effort by Victor to touch her as they dance, and then the whole ensemble joins in the friction-free frolic. 

Miguel Acevedo, who at moments in movement and delivery calls to mind Brooks himself, is an appropriately nebishy and lovable Frederick Frankenstein, with a strong stage presence backed by a fine singing voice and comedy chops. He flawlessly delivers “The Brain,” sung as machine gun patter with syllables spewing forth like a fusillade of saliva pellets. (When it comes to such head-spinning word salads, Mel Brooks is a master chef.) Sharp-eared Broadway buffs will detect in this and other numbers sly homages to Broadway classics like Fiddler on the Roof and Gypsy. When Frederick sings “There is nothing like the brain,” Brooks sends up Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “There is  nothing like a dame” from South Pacific. There are even nostalgic echoes of the barbershop quartet from The Music Man in the four-part harmony of “Welcome to Transylvania.” 

The other cast principals each do their considerable part to bring to vibrant life what are more caricatures than characters. Tom Beck, Jr. is a complete gas as the hunched over, sniveling Igor and kills it performing the Astaire-like song-and-dance ditties “Transylvania Mania” and “Together Again (for the First Time).”

As Frederick’s fiancée Elizabeth Benning (who evolves into the Monster’s hair-raising squeeze), Christine Gnieski makes the most of her romantic solos and comic bits.

A notably poignant moment has Neil Schleifer as the Hermit tugging tenderly at our heart strings with his melodramatic plea to “Please Send Me Someone,” which improbably evokes both Al Jolson’s 1920s “Mammy” and 1960s pop vocalist Bobby Vinton’s “Mr Lonely.”  Impressive too is the same actor’s unrecognizable doubling as militaristically uniformed Inspector Kent, he of the eyepatch and mechanical limbs that are more lumber than limber. 

Speaking of lumbering, as the larger-than-life Monster, Mario Andres has all the right moves, with his super-size frame lumbering around ominously. He also has our attention when showing a softer side. Maybe the big galoof with Abby Normal’s brain is not such a bad guy after all. 

Grace Callahan is an ideal fit for the coquettish lab assistant Inga, whose naivete is exceeded only by her flair for flirting. (Hey, just ask Frederick.) And she makes the most of her center stage rendition of the seduction song “Listen to Your Heart.” Suffice it to say that, when it comes to Inga, the smitten Frederick has his heart on. 

Of course the piece de resistance is the Monster singing and dancing to “Puttin on the Ritz,” a standard from the 1920s by Irving Berlin. Mr. Andres and Miguel Acevedo as Frederick don tuxedos, hats and canes – and away we go, watching the Monster tap into his inner Astaire. The Brooks joke here is how the monster laboriously ekes out of his mouth “Puttin’ on the Ritz” while sounding like a constipated dolphin. 
 

The high-performing ensemble includes Megan Bruno, Jeremy Cazes, Jenn Cooperman, Elaine D’Addezio, Elinor Greenway, Alexa Kelly, Madison Landau, Peter Moriarty, Matiwonesa Munyaradzi, Paul Russo. 

As is customary in the Elmwood Playhouse community, Young Frankenstein is bolstered by the professionalism and work ethic of the offstage supporting cast. 

Musical Director Katie Luekens Chan Chee leads a great-sounding orchestra, with Rob Levy (Drums/Percussion), Jessie Englander (Reeds), Jon Menges (Trumpet/Horn), Will Rich (Keyboard 1), Bobby Weil (Keyboard 2), Wyeth Tvenge (Bass), Megha Swamy (Violin).
Set Design by Steve Loftus. Technical Director is Rob Ward. Lighting Design by James Gardner. Costume Design by Janet Fenton. Prop Design by Rich Ciero. Stage Manager is Evelyn Russo. 

Young Frankenstein is excellently produced by Elmwood veterans Mimi Leahy and Steve Taylor.
You don’t need to be a Mel Brooks fan, or even a horror movie fan, to enjoy this funfest of a feel-good show, but a monstrous sense of humor doesn’t hurt.

A helpful postscript: If you don’t know how to get to Elmwood Playhouse, the directions couldn’t be simpler: Walk this way.

[This is a gentle note to producers of local theater that I am attaching to my reviews: In addition to featuring playwrights and directors in the marketing materials promoting your productions, please remember to also promote cast members by listing the actors’ names in the same materials. Doing so can help fill seats by those who recognize a familiar name and buy a ticket to see and support that person.]