Young Frankenstein on Broadway

Yesterday I was surprised to find myself going to see the musical of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. My partner and I decided to rush it last minute, because he loves Megan Mullally. And I can say without a doubt that she was absolutely fan-fucking-tastic in the Madeline Kahn role. Those who have only seen her on Will and Grace may not know that she has an AMAZING singing voice and was a musical comedy star on Broadway before she became internationally known for the sitcom. It was a fantastic diva role for her, and I wouldn’t have traded in the opportunity to see her play it for anything. Andrea Martin was also fabulous as Frau Blucher. Unfortunately, no one else on stage matched their comedic genius, most particularly Roger Bart, in the title role, who was just rather lame and made me miss Gene Wilder in the part. Also, neither the score nor script were nearly as good as The Producers (the best musical moments occur thanks to Megan Mullally elevating her material, rather than the song itself being strong, though she has a field day with “Please Don’t Touch Me,” probably the best number in the show, besides “Putting on the Ritz,” which is, of course, the only song in the show not by Brooks but by Irving Berlin). The main problem with it is that, if you extracted every song from the script, you wouldn’t miss any plot whatsoever, and only a few are anything but forgettable. It, however, was still immensely fun. Its nearly three hour running time went by in the blink of an eye, and I would recommend people go see it if just for the sets alone. I wouldn’t often recommend people go to a show with an unremarkable script and score just because of the sets, but these were the most amazing sets I’ve seen on a stage in years. The way the castle was represented was jaw-dropping. And beyond just looking extremely impressive, the sets were very clever, too. Some of the effects, such as the bringing-the-monster-to-life scene and the horse ride to the castle, in particular, were awesome, on a sheer visual level, but also just very smartly and unexpectedly handled. If Megan, Andrea, and the set designer for this production don’t win Tonys, it will be a grave injustice. If, on the other hand, anyone else on this creative team wins a Tony, I would have to question the voters’ sanity. It’s a very fun show and certainly doesn’t deserve the lousy reviews it got, but that’s all.