Gammage Goers

The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein
ASU Gammage Theater
September 28, 2010 7:30p performance

Last night I was lucky enough to get the chance to attend the second showing of Gammage’s Broadway Season opening show The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein. Once again, the Gammage experience did not fail to disappoint. This touring show proved to live up to its billing with Brooks’ humorous take on the Shelley classic. Strategically placed throughout the performance, the innuendo and humorous actions (bordering on slapstick), comments and scenes kept the audience laughing. On first thought, you would think a production based on a movie made in the early 70’s would be dated. Luckily for us, the Brooks humor is not only timeless, but there are several examples of updating scenes with current cultural occurrences.

The cast was first rate, very well capable of pulling off the top notch performance that they did on all fronts; acting, singing and dancing. As a matter of fact, in the after show mill, more than once patrons made comments as to how they had seen the show once upon a time in New York and that this performance as a whole (and some individual performers), were better. From what I remember as a kid, the storyline pretty much stuck to the movie and although perhaps adapted for the stage, the major gags were all there. I have to say I liked the stage better myself.

As far as individual performers go, I have a deep appreciation for what it takes to do what they do and find it hard to pick out and point out the intricacies of individual performances and rating whether or not someone was fantastic, good, fair, bad, poor or any other general term. However, that being said, I believe a few performers stood out. The characters of Dr. Fronkensteen (I couldn’t resist), Inga and Elizabeth were very well played by very talented artists with a good sense of comedic timing and great vocal talent (especially Elizabeth). I believe most prominent in the show for these same traits were the characters of The Monster and Igor. I might add that these characters nearly stole the show with their performances.

Also, kudos go out to the ensemble (most notably for the closing number), for the craftsmanship of the stage and lighting (we felt as if we were in some of the storms) and for the orchestra (smoothly taking us through each scene). One thing that could have been a little better was that there were some moments where it was hard to hear or understand a word or two uttered by a few characters. I’m not sure if it was because of the way the lines were said, the accent utilized, our location in the theater or a combination of the preceding, but these were just minor issues.

Overall, I would have to say that if you could use a good laugh (and who couldn’t in this day and age?); make your way to Gammage to catch Young Frankenstein. The performance is top notch and the humor will keep you laughing throughout the evening. I went into it with an open mind, thinking that it would be okay, but not quite my cup of tea and left feeling pleasantly surprised at how much I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

On a side note, I do have to add the only disappointing portion of the evening. Fortunately it had nothing to do with the cast or the production. I attended the show with my wife and both she and I were appalled during the curtain call to see the early exit of several patrons. We were fortunate enough to be in row eleven, so we didn’t get a view of the whole of the audience, but even in these first eleven rows at least a dozen people on our side of the theater partook in the opportunity for an early exit (two of which blocked our view for an extended period, limiting our chance to applaud Inga’s character). Whatever happened to theater etiquette? I understand what may be an urgent need for the restroom by a few or the desire to beat others out of the parking lot after 20,000 people are leaving the ball game, but in my humble opinion, whether the show was liked or not, that extra two minutes should be spent showing respect and appreciation for the efforts, not only of the cast but of the whole production team for the time, effort and energy extended towards our entertainment.

David
2010-2011 Gammage Goer