Young Frankenstein 35th Anniversary

Young Frankenstein celebrates its 35th anniversary today. The film was first released in North America on December 15, 1974.

Much like that other Frankenstein comedy, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), which became a literal template for monster movie comedies, Young Frankenstein was such an inspired spoof — and a worldwide box-office hit — that it triggered a slew of decidedly minor copies including at least one soft-core version, Frankenstein All’Italiana (1975), and an outright scene-for-scene clone, the notorious “Turkish Young Frankenstein”, Sevimli Frankestayn (1975).

Assembled in a color shot from the set of the black and white film: Director Mel Brooks, Peter Boyle in blue/green makeup, Marty ‘Eye-Gor’ Feldman, Gene Wilder (who wrote the film), and Terry ‘Inga” Garr.

Brooks adapted Young Frankenstein as a Broadway musical in 2007. The go-for-broke production played 14 tumultuous months, shutting down on January 4, 2009, its expensive trappings at odds with a collapsing economy. After some retooling, the show is now touring with its highly acclaimed original leads, Roger Bart as Dr. Fronkensteen, and Shuler Hensley as the tap-dancing Monster.

Young Frankenstein Musical website.

Related:
Posts about the Young Frankenstein Musical

Frankenstein on Broadway

It was one of the most anticipated showbiz events of the year, gathering steam in the entertainment press even as the show was being tried out in Seattle.

Adapting the beloved 1974 film to the stage posed a challenge. Mel Brooks had been very successful in morphing The Producers into a live musical. That one translated easily to the stage. Making Young Frankenstein into a live experience implied a major modification to the original concept. The nostalgic, iconic visuals at the core of the movie had to be thrown out.

Young Frankenstein was not only a marvelous comedy, it was a pitch perfect homage to the classic Frankenstein films, a visual spoof replete with authentic laboratory sets and evocative black and white photography. The effect was so dead-on, it was like stumbling onto an alternate universe Universal movie where everything looked perfect, but all the characters had lost their marbles. Translating to the stage meant losing the key visual treatment of the film. The set pieces are the same, the familiar jokes are all there on cue, but in the end, the new Young Frankenstein is a different animal. Going from film to stage, it traded satire for parody, finesse for burlesque.

Critics have generally been kind to Broadway’s Young Frankenstein. By all accounts, it is loud, boisterous and thoroughly entertaining. Sutton Foster has been singled out for her knockout interpretation of the lusty Inga (played by the equally excellent Terry Carr in the original movie), notably for a show-stopping hayride number, and the fabulous Andrea Martin is a perfect casting opportunity as the dreaded Frau Blucher. Most satisfyingly, Shuler Hensley, in the all-important part of the galumphing Monster (his third pass at the role), is unanimously acclaimed.

The unstoppable Mel Brooks justified his revival and retooling of Young Frankenstein as a Broadway blockbuster in a recent issue of Vanity Fair. “Listen," Brooks said, "the reanimation of dead tissue is important philosophical thought—and it's still good for a laugh."

For sheer hype and wall-to-wall coverage, no other Frankenstein event this year can match the media impact of Young Frankenstein coming to Broadway as a musical.

The Broadway show’s elaborate website (Check out the Transylvania Travel Bureau) and MySpace page.

An article with pictures on fangoria.com.

Previous Young Frankenstein Musical posts.

Frankenstein Puts On The Ritz

The New Mel Brook Musical Young Frankenstein opened officially on Thursday evening, November 8, at the cavernous Hilton Theater in New York.

I’ll let you Google the reviews if you’re interested. Expect a lot of complaints about how it falls short of the original (surprise!), how the songs are less than memorable, and whether the whole thing is worth those “premium” $450 seats. On the plus side, everyone agrees that Sutton Foster (Inga) and Andrea Martin (Frau Blucher) are splendid, and it’s very nice to see that Shuler Hensley, no stranger to the part of The Monster, stomps away with the show.

The New York Time’s Ben Brantley — besides calling the spectacle an ear-splitting, overblown burlesque — says, “Shuler Hensley is terrific, turning Frankenstein’s monster into the most human character onstage” and singles out his Puttin’ On The Ritz as the show’s “one truly exhilarating number”. Newsday’s Linda Winer says Hensley “makes a splendidly human creature”. By the way, the Newsday page has a video sampler of musical numbers.

Mel Brook’s previous film-turned-into-a-Broadway-musical, The Producers, was then turned back into a new film. Assuming the Young Frankenstein musical is successful, should we brace ourselves for a new musical film version?

We’ll see, but if Young Frankenstein circles back to the movies, let’s hope they lock Shuler Hensley into The Monster’s role.

Shuler Hensley’s website has tons of photos and articles from the musical, and from Van Helsing as well.

The Updates of Frankenstein

Updating recent posts with new information…

Broadway Frankenstein

There’s no lack of info — and hype — on the web about Mel Brook’s musical version of Young Frankenstein opening on Broadway this October.

I just thought I’d mention that the show’s website was significantly upgraded this week with new info, cast pictures, video and goodies to download.

Cryptic Cartoons

Demented cartoonist Eric Pigors, whom I profiled earlier, announces that his Cryptic Art book is completely Sold Out… but you can STILL get a copy. I told you he was demented!

‘Unkle’ Pigors is offering a very special Halloween-cover, numbered and signed edition of the book, strictly limited to 30 precious copies. The hardcover, 120-page, full-color book comes augmented with 50 new drawings, and it all goes for 40 well-wasted smackeroos. Go ahead, give your eyeballs a treat!

Get it direct from the master at Toxictoons and tell him Frankensteinia sent you.

Frankenskulls

Picking up on my Skull of Frankenstein post, Max, The Drunken Severed Head (by the way, he’s demented, too!) has posted some wild morphing x-rays (by dadabigelow) of the Frankenstein Monster’s crazy cranium.

Fun stuff!

Young Frankenstein Lives Again

This post is part of the First Annual 2007 Slapstick Blog-a-thon coordinated by Thom Ryan at Film of the Year. Click and see a list of all the participating bloggers.

Just like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein before it, Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder’s Young Frankenstein spawned its share of imitators. For one, there was a rather miserable David Niven comedy called Old Dracula, but the kicker must be Sevimli Frankestayn, aka Turkish Young Frankenstein, a spectacularly inept shot for shot remake that plays like a straight horror film. In other words, a knock-off of a classic satire… that misses the joke!

At 81, Mel Brooks is the Elder Statesman of Slapstick. In November, in case you haven’t heard, he’s reviving Young Frankenstein as a big budget Broadway musical. The tryouts in Seattle have been widely publicized on TV and the Net.

Watch Brooks making his pitch on entertainment news shows, available on YouTube here and here. There is some overlap between the two clips, but you get a glimpse of the very elaborate sets that include a rising slab, complete with lightning bolts. Here’s a fine Seattle Times article, and a slideshow (pics by Greg Gilbert) of actor Schuler Hensley — who also played the Monster in the film Van Helsing — being transformed into a very green Frankenstein Monster, and this Playbill feature has good pictures (by Paul Kolnik) of the very energetic cast. The official website for the Young Frankenstein musical is here.

Frankenstein Meets The Mermaid

This weekend, the New York Times carries an article called “Monster, Meet Mermaid”. Turns out the competition for Young Frankenstein won’t be the other Frankenstein Musical opening at the same time, but rather the big new Disney show, The Little Mermaid. Now, how’s this for trivia: This is not the first time that a comedy-based Frankenstein Monster meets a Mermaid. Back in ‘48, at Universal, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was shooting concurrently with the William Powell fantasy, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid. Glenn Strange and Anne Blythe, both in costume, posed for a neat publicity shot.

All we need now is for Young Frankenstein’s Schuler Hensley and The Little Mermaid’s Sierra Boggess to get together and close the circle. Do it on January 1st, and it'll be a 60th year reunion!

And that wraps up my contribution to the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon. I had a ball! I was introduced to some great blogs, I read some terrific posts, and I made some new friends. Here’s a pie in the face to Thom Ryan at Film of the Year who made it all happen. Thanks, Thom, and congratulations on a job well done.

The Monster : Shuler Hensley

Shuler Hensley as the howling Monster in the splendid black and white opening sequence to the otherwise overbaked fuse-blower Van Helsing (2004).

Hensley holds a unique position among Frankenstein actors, having essayed the Monster in three different productions. After Van Helsing, he went on to sing the Monster’s part on a cast recording of Frankenstein: The Musical, a dramatic musical adaptation slated to open off-Broadway in November. Who will inherit the part in that one is yet to be announced, Hensley having since gone on to play the tap-dancing, zipper-necked Monster in the big-budget Broadway adaptation of Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein, currently in rehearsals.