Review Roundup: Did YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Make Critics Feel Alive?

Mel Brooks' quirky musical Young Frankenstein is making its West End premiere at London's Garrick Theatre. Based on the 1974 Oscar-nominated film co-written with Thomas Meehan and starring Gene Wilder, the brand new production follows a Broadway run that closed in 2009.

Young Frankenstein is the wickedly inspired re-imagining of Mary Shelley's classic novel, which sees the creation of a creature that cannot be controlled. When Frederick Frankenstein, a New York brain surgeon and professor, inherits a Transylvanian castle and laboratory from his genius, but deranged grandfather, Victor Von Frankenstein, he quickly has some decisions to make.

Originally opening on Broadway in 2007, directed by Susan Stroman, Young Frankenstein received a variety of views, running for 484 performances. Stroman returns to direct a revamped, restyled production, reuniting with Mel Brooks and the creative team behind their last hit, The Producers.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Photo credit: Roy Tan

Emma Watkins, BroadwayWorld: Whilst the plot isn't rocket science (although technically it is brain surgery), it doesn't need to be. Brooks and Thomas Meehan's book is full of genuinely funny gags, full-on slapstick moments and blatant innuendo (a bit too much of the latter for my taste, if I'm totally honest), guaranteeing there'll be something to tickle everyone's funny bone. The music, also by Brooks, is a touch formulaic, but the skilful lyrics are fine compensation for any lack of musical originality.

And oh, the cast! It's vanishingly rare to assemble a group of principals who are all so perfect in their roles. Hadley Fraser positively sparkles as Frederick, totally mastering the deadpan humour, vocal dexterity and choreography to prove he's the real deal as a leading man. Frank(enstein)ly, he has no right to be so charismatic whilst wearing such a dodgy wig and moustache.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: Susan Stroman, as director and choreographer, orchestrates the extravaganza perfectly and Beowulf Boritt's designs have just the right antiquarian oddity. The cast is also good enough to banish memories of the movie prototypes. Hadley Fraser as Frederick avoids crazed-scientist shtick to give us a credible portrait of a prof driven by the lust for experiments and experiments with lust. Ross Noble is both funny and touching as the faithful Igor, Summer Strallen lights up the stage as the incandescent Inga, Dianne Pilkington is suitably arch as Frederick's untouchable fiancee and Shuler Hensley, the sole survivor of the original 2007 Broadway production, as the Monster inescapably gains our sympathy.

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph: The cast won't - can't - eclipse the memories, for fans, of Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman, but The Shadows of those dearly departed stars don't loom intrusively large either. Noble in particular is a revelation, courting physical injury by continually contorting himself inside his black cape, his moon-face combining low-level cunning with lobotomised gormlessness.

Henry Hitchins, Evening Standard: Hadley Fraser is wild-eyed and tirelessly exuberant as Frankenstein, the great inventor's grandson. Keen to escape the burden of his famous name, he nonetheless inherits the ancestral castle - and embraces the legacy, along with its eccentric staff. If nothing else, it's an opportunity for respite from his fussy fiancée Elizabeth, who's given an air of majestic ghastliness by Dianne Pilkington.

Alun Hood, WhatsOnStage: Stroman and Brooks have assembled a killer cast led by Hadley Fraser as a glorious, dead pan Frankenstein, dashing but faintly absurd, with a ringing tenor voice; Summer Strallen sparkles as his love interest, sex-mad blonde Inga. Fraser and Strallen collectively achieve that sort of sunny, lunatic bliss that only exists in musical comedy.

Alice Saville, Time Out: Usually seen in more serious fare, Hadley Fraser is a faintly leftfield choice to play lead Frederick Frankenstein, hapless grandson to Mary Shelley's Victor. His Gene Wilder-style wig isn't enough to instil him with mad scientist vim but he still keeps this bonkers plot moving. His green-faced co-star Shuler Hensley has been with the show since its 2007 Broadway premiere, and it shows. He makes a great monster, progressing from creaky charm to a bravura dance sequence set to 'Puttin' On the Ritz'. And Dianne Pilkington is wonderfully voiced and hilariously diva-ish as an heiress whose chaste, doomed romance with Dr Frankenstein inspires the show's two most memorable numbers: 'Touch Me Not' and 'Deep Love'.