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<p class="MsoNormal"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">“Young Frankenstein” should delight Beck
audiences, but . . .</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino;color:black">(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics
Circle)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino;color:black"><span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">On a November Saturday afternoon in 2007, I anxiously entered the
Hilton Theatre in New York.<span style> </span>I love
exaggerated, well-conceived and performed farce.<span style> </span>I was going to see “Young Frankenstein” by the king of farce
and parody, Mel Brooks.<span style> </span>Yes,
“Young Frankenstein,” officially known as<span style>
</span>“The New Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein,” was the Broadway follow-up to
“The Producers,” by the comedy madman and his writing sidekick, Thomas
Meehan.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Brooks conceived the comedy routine, “The 2000 Year Old Man.”
“Blazing Saddles” is one of my all time favorite movies.<span style> </span>Brooks is also responsible for such
other zany offerings as “The Twelve Chairs,” “Silent Movie,” and “History of
the World, Part I.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">“Young Frankenstein,” was going to be great!<span style> </span>Right?<span style> </span>Wrong!<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">The musical, based on the 1974 film of
the same name, followed Brooks’ pattern for “The Producers.” He grabbed
the film’s plot and best lines and modified them for the stage. But this
time he didn’t create the same power “shticks” and realistic ridiculousness, so
the results were less than expected.</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">The reviews called the piece, “an overblown burlesque review,”
“giggly smuttiness with throw-away music.” Other comments stated, “there’s more
ho-hum than hummable music,” and, “you cannot escape the impression that
everyone is working desperately hard to animate essentially weak material and
the show fatally lacks that touch of the sublime that made ‘The Producers’ so
special.”<span style> </span>Sadly, I agreed with
them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">The public also agreed. The
Broadway production, in spite of the Brooks/Meehan combo, a cast which included
Roger Bart, Megan Mullaly, Sutton Foster and Andrea Martin, a $16 million
dollar budget, and direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, but ran only
484 performances. (Compare that to the 2,502 performances for “The
Producers,” or the $9 million spent on “The Book of Morman which has already
run 1400 performances.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">“Young Frankenstein” is a parody of horror films, especially the
blockbuster flicks based on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and “Son of
Frankenstein.”<span style> </span>It takes place in
Transylvania Heights in 1934.<span style> </span>At
the start, the villagers are celebrating the death of Dr. Victor von
Frankenstein, the mad scientist who has supposedly been experimenting in his
castle with bringing dead bodies back to life.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Hurrah, the mad scientist and his whole family are dead and the
village no longer has to live in fear.<span style>
</span>Well, not so fast!<span style> </span>Vic has
a grandson, Frederick, the Dean of Anatomy at New York’s best university
“Johns, Miriam and Anthony Hopkins School of Medicine.”<span style> </span>But, not to worry.<span style> </span>Ziggy, the village idiot, assures the
townspeople that there is no way that Frederick is going to come to
Transylvania.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Of course, Ziggy, as is the case with village idiots, is wrong and
Frederick, renamed “Fronkensteen” is forced to travel abroad to settle the
claim on his inherited castle.<span style> </span>And
so the potential fun begins.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Frederick needs to get away from his
frigid fiancée, who refuses to allow him to touch her. (Obviously no
hanky-panky is going to take place.) There’s a meeting with Igor (the
hunchbacked laboratory aid, whose hump keeps moving around his back), a romp in
the hay wagon with Inga, (his well-endowed assistant), horses who neigh each
time the name of the castle’s housekeeper, Frau Blucher, is spoken, the
stealing of a dead body, the mishandling of a brain needed for the creation of
the monster, a sex dalliance in mid-air, many reference to “boobs,” the
creation of a large green monster in platform shoes, and lots of oft-hilarious
(or, almost hilarious, or, kind of funny) situations).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Martin Céspedes’s creative choreography, which incorporates
Borscht-belt vaudeville routines, tap dancing, a kick tap line, eastern
European movements including the Chardosh, and the invention of the “Don’t
Touch Me” style of movement, incorporates the right style of ridiculousness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">The depth of absurdity is not totally built into the script, so
much of it has to be invented.<span style>
</span>Director Scott Spence develops some of the ridiculousness, but he
doesn’t dig deep enough to create the total needed abandonment.<span style> </span>In addition, though the cast puts out
full effort, they simply don’t have the vaudeville backgrounds to create some
of Brooks’s outrageousness. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Since, in general, the Beck audience
members aren’t filled with the ethnic background needed to appreciate Brooks “</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:rgb(38,38,38)">mishegas,</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">“ if the
opening night audience is any indication, they won't know what they are
missing. ("Mishegas" is ridiculousness beyond the
ridiculous. It’s Sid Caesar, Harvey Korman, Imogene Coca, Carol Burnett,
Carl Reiner-ridiculousness. It’s the Native Americans in “Blazing
Saddles” speaking Yiddish rather than communicating in an Indian dialect.
If you don’t know Yiddish, you don't now how funny the scene is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Amiee Collier , as Frau Blucher, comes the closest to
understanding the level of Brooks’ farce.<span style>
</span>Jamie Koeth has a nice touch with the reality of Frederick.<span style> </span>Leslie Andrews has some good moments as
Inga.<span style> </span>Christopher Aldrich is
physically right for The Monster and he does a nice job with “Putting on the
Ritz,” but is neither scary enough at his “birth,” nor exaggerated enough, as
he matures.<span style> </span>Alex Smith, as Igor,
displays a fine touch with comedy, but needed to let loose more and enjoy
himself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Trad A Burns lighting design is
well-conceived and properly spooky. The lack of a fly gallery and
wing space restricts scenic designers. All things considered, Cameron
Caley Michalak does an adequate job of making the scene changes
non-obtrusive. His answer to the need for a second level was not
impressive and the concept of dropping things from the ceiling should have been
deleted. The setting is aided by some nice video designs by Ian
Hinz. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:<span style> </span>“Young Frankenstein” isn’t a
well-written script and it has a weak musical score.<span style> </span>Is the production bad?<span style>
</span>Not really. Martin Céspedes’s choreography added a creativity factor,
and the second act on opening night was funnier than the first, hopefully
indicating an increased comfort level by the cast and the ability to really let
loose.<span style> </span>In spite of the
negatives, audiences should have a fun time at Beck.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">“Young
Frankenstein” is scheduled to run through August 17, 2014 at Beck Center for
the Arts.<span style> </span>For tickets and
information call </span><span style="font-family:Palatino">216-521-2540 or go online to </span><span style="font-family:Palatino"><a href="http://www.beckcenter.org/"><span style>http://www.beckcenter.org</span></a><span style="color:black"><span style> </span></span></span></p>
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