YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN was originally a movie written by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks back in the 1970s. A highly successful spoof of the B movie horror films that were filled with monsters running amok, angry village mobs with burning torches in hand, baying for blood and protagonists trying to manipulate death.Brooks then wrote songs and adapted the script for its first foray as a musical back on Broadway ten years ago. Now, after a successful 6 months in the West End, and with Corey English taking over from Ross Noble as the madcap assistant to Dr. Frankenstein, it was worth a revisit.
For those who have seen the movie, a lot of the best sequences and jokes are lovingly recreated. It is Brooks at his hair-brained comic best. The musical goes one step further than the movie with many a sly and sometimes not so sly acknowledgement that we are all in the theatre watching a show.
Despite the compact size of the Garrick Theatre, Young Frankenstein feels like a big Vaudevillian Goliath. The musical numbers, slickly drilled and choreographed by Broadway’s Susan Stroman, come flying at you with barely a chance to catch your breath and even if a song starts as a solo, the ensemble quickly enter to ramp up the energy and pizazz.
Act 1 passes in a blur of singing, dancing and racing storytelling. You barely have time to register a gag let alone laugh at it. However after the interval, the show finally seems to find it rhythm and the audience are given time to enjoy and laugh to their hearts content.
The outstanding element of the evening is the whole cast. They are at the top of their game. Dianne Pilkington brings a glorious uptightness to Frankenstein’s fiancée, Elizabeth, that covers up a volcano of passion underneath just waiting to be released. Lesley Joseph as Fraulein Blücher throws herself around the stage with the energy of an Energizer Bunny and revels in her Kander and Ebb-esque ‘He Vas My Boyfriend’. Corey English as Igor is sheer comedic dynamite and equally matched by Nathan Elwick as Frankenstein’s creation. Seeing his green monster ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ is a highlight of the show.
Brooks never aims to explore deep psychological questions but has created a show that wears it thoroughly upbeat heart of musical whimsy on its sleeve. It is a show of two halves and the second is definitely worth the wait.
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