Current mood:

pleased

Penny for my thoughts...
We decided to go see Young Frankenstein yesterday. We knew we wanted to go, just kept putting off buying tickets. I was able to get two seats in the back, main floor, for the matinee. We had a pretty good view, though the balcony above us blocked a little.

We (along with most of the audience) had a fantastic time. It was hilariously funny, and some of the songs are quite hummable. I don't know if they'll tweak it any more before heading to Broadway; some of the production numbers seemed to me to go on a little too long, and there were one or two songs and scenes that could easily be cut or shortened without too much effort. And I'm not sure why, after remaining fairly true to the plot of the movie, they added some extraneous material in the final scenes; if they asked my advice I'd tell them to go back to the source.

The cast is fantastic. Some of them seemed to be channeling their movie counterparts, while adding their own touches to the characters. Roger Bart isn't quite as frenetic as Gene Wilder, but who could be? Christopher Fitzgerald was the perfect Igor; at times I felt he was the reincarnation of Marty Feldman. The part of Elizabeth has been expanded - not entirely successfully - but she's marvelously played by the fabulous Megan Mullally, who mugged most appropriately and got a big round of applause every time she appeared. She also gets to sing what I think is the funniest song in the show, "Deep Love". Andrea Martin's Frau Blücher (neiggghhhhhhh!!!) is a cross between Cloris Leachman and Pirini Scleroso; and that's a good thing. Inspector Kemp is played by Fred Applegate, who also plays the blind hermit; his Kemp is strangely bland, but the hermit is spot-on. Sutton Foster's portrayal of Inga doesn't have the spacy ditzyness of Teri Garr, but she's very funny, especially in her big number "Roll in the Hay" (which is my current earworm). Shuler Hensley as the Monster doesn't project as much 'monsterness' as I'd like, but he's fine, particularly in the "Puttin' on the Ritz" production number.

The costumes by William Ivey Long are fine, but not great. I thought the villagers' costumes were too elaborate (though pretty), and the ancestors' costumes were unimaginative. But Elizabeth gets some drop-dead gowns, and Frau Blücher's (neiggghhhhhhh!!!) outfits are perfectly lovely and appropriate.

Anyway, we liked it, and I can't wait for the cast album. If you can, go see it while it's in Seattle. I hope they do well on Broadway.

ETA: corwynofamber and Vicki went to the Saturday evening performance.