Young Frankenstein
Mel Brooks' Musical at Sonoma Arts Live
By: Victor Cordell - Sep 08, 2024
Few artists have the breadth of talent and deserve the success of Mel Brooks. His sophisticatedly raucous, multidimensional comedy embraces visual and verbal humor steeped in cultural and social issues. His palette dabbles in a wide coloration of material to include hilarities such as Blazing Saddles (westerns), The Producers (Broadway), Spaceballs (space adventure), High Anxiety (psychiatry), and of course, Young Frankenstein (horror). And though he is known for his zaniness as a script writer and director, many comedy admirers don’t realize that Brooks composes music and writes lyrics for most of the original songs in his works.
Sonoma Arts Live takes on one of these masterpieces, the stage musical of Young Frankenstein, and delivers the goods in a boisterous, fast-paced entertainment. Director Larry Williams’s performers seem to enjoy themselves, and that happy contagion spreads to the audience.
Although Brooks’s plays and movies are dominated by genre parody, this one conspicuously draws on specific previous material, albeit adding its own literary license. The central character, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, is an American academic scientist invited to the family’s castle in Transylvania, where his infamous grandfather had created “The Monster.” The setup is that Frederick sees the opportunity to correct his grandfather’s flawed work by recreating a monster but giving him human intelligence. All does not go as planned.
With a thin but adequate plotline, interest and narrative thrust must be generated by the personalities of the players. Happily, Brooks has invested them with quirky attributes and memorable lines, so that the play entertains throughout when well done. Apart from routine jokes and schtick, the script brims with bawdy double entendres, so that when we hear the passionate moan “Oh, sweet mystery of life,” from offstage, we know whereof the lady speaks. Or when Frankenstein says “What knockers!” it’s clear that he’s not referring to the two rings on the door that are rapped to announce one’s arrival.
Offering charm and a wry, durable smile, often prompted by irony, frustration, or error, Michael Bauer takes on the role of Frederick. He also brings a fine singing voice. Although it is used to good effect throughout, it is most fun when he engages in long patters concerning gray matter in “There is Nothing Like the Brain.” He deals with numerous predictable but well-executed pratfalls.
One gag is the classic from the haunted house genre in which he and his sometimes yodeling and always distracting assistant Inga (Emma Sutherland) get caught in a swiveling bookcase in the castle that fronts a hidden chamber. Another is when he is to go into a room with The Monster and gives the instructions “Do not open this door no matter how much you hear me scream.” Unsurprisingly, he does scream and desperately does want the door opened.
Young Frankenstein is full of other wackos, who are performed with great zest. First up is Frederick’s American fiancée, Elizabeth, who teems with self-indulgence, and Joanna Lynn Bert totally gets her character. She flounces about with a pasted-on smile of condescending confidence. Her aloofness is captured by her perfect nail fetish and her song and dance “Please Don’t Touch Me,” which also displays Bert’s great singing voice and range.
Two castle characters add to the hilarity. Pat Barr portrays Igor, the black-draped, hooded servant with a dragging leg and a hunched back in which the hump inexplicably appears on one side and later on the other. Then there is the tight lipped, scowling Frau Blucher, played with dominatrix-like relish by Kim Williams. So strong is the Frau’s disturbing aura that horses outside whinny at the mere mention of her name. The great comic actor Bruce Viera also contributes as the militaristic inspector with the hilarious uncontrollable mechanical arm.
Finally, there is Todd Krish as The Monster. Even when limited to grunts and groans, his depiction generates interest, and when blessed with language, he is quite droll and captivating, especially when repeatedly fracturing the lyric “Puttin’ on the Ritz” in his singing duet.
Creative elements add to this fine community theater production. The small stage constrains scenarios that want to allow for wandering, but the director utilizes elements beyond the stage that work during and between scenes. Carl Jordan’s scenery is simple but appropriate. Among other notable effects, Frank Sarubbi’s lighting and Albert Casselhoff’s sound fill out the staging nicely.
Young Frankenstein based on Mary Shelly’s novels, with book by Thomas Meehan & Mel Brooks, music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, and produced by Sonoma Arts Live plays at Sonoma Community Center, 276 East Napa Street, Sonoma, CA through September 22, 2024.