Young Frankenstein - Review

Garrick Theatre, London


****

Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman

Hadley Fraser and Shuler Hensley

Not since the pairing of Bialystock and Bloom has there been a theatrical partnership to match that of Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman. He’s an irreverent comic genius who for 70 years has taken no prisoners in his mocking of life’s stereotypes and injustices while she is one of the most perceptive and assured director/choreographers of her generation. And so it is that their latest collaboration Young Frankenstein, recently arrived from Broadway to open at London’s Garrick Theatre, is another triumph.

Like The Producers before it, Young Frankenstein hails from a Brooks movie of some 40 years earlier with the veteran writer/director reframing the comedy-horror flick around his own composition of words and music. And much like Dr Frankenstein’s eponymous creature, Brooks (together with Stroman) has re-animated his story into exceptional musical theatre. If Sunset Boulevard is a sincere tribute to the romance of post-war Hollywood, then Young Frankenstein is an as-loving parody of the same time and place, but played for laughs. 

Snowflakes be warned, there are no “safe spaces” in this show as Brooks makes fun not only of cinematic genres, but also, and mercilessly, of men, women and for good measure exhumed corpses too. The jokes may be as corny as they are smutty, but Brooks knows just how far to dig in mining this rich and timeless seam of humour, throwing political correctness to the wind.

The plot (very) loosely follows the classic story, with Hadley Fraser as the fine-voiced young Dr Frankenstein leaving his slightly matriarchal fiancée Elizabeth played by Dianne Pilkington and setting off from New York (aboard the HMS Queen Mary Shelley, geddit?) to travel to his infamous grandfather’s castle in Transylvania.

Once there and in the heart of Europe, (and oh how Hollywood has, for decades, loved to view our continent as full of nightmarish monsters) the young Doctor meets a string of characters that are straight out of the 1950s B-Movie playbook

Ross Noble is Igor, the hunched assistant, Lesley Joseph plays Frau Blucher an older woman with a sinister past, while Summer Strallen is Inga whose character is largely a recreation of The Producers’ Ulla.

Noble’s talent lies in stand-up comedy - though he applies himself brilliantly to the scripted confines of Igor’s ineptness. Joseph however is quite simply an old-school comedy master. She works the room and with her big number He Vas My Boyfriend offers up a gloriously pastiche of Marlene Dietrich.

Strallen’s Inga sends the comedy straight back to the 1970s - gifted in song, dance and performance, her turn defines the cliché that Brooks has created for her.

There’s eye-watering stuff from Patrick Clancy who doubles up both as the village’s police Inspector as well as a Hermit who befriends the monster. Clancy is also a talented pro who’s worked with Brooks before - his timing is spot on, with slapstick that is as hilarious as it is offensive.

Notwithstanding the occasional lapse in pace, Stroman’s staging is inspired. Act 2 may contain some wittily brilliant tap routines that spoof Top Hat delightfully, but the first half’s number Hang Him Til He’s Dead sees the pitchfork-waving mob of villagers choreographed into an embarrassingly joyous hangman’s dance. And as for the horses that haul Dr Frankenstein’s cart to the castle, never has the equine form been staged or suggested with such ingenuity and comedy.

Perhaps the biggest accolade of the night is due to Shuler Hensley who plays The Monster. Only rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic (he was last in London in the 90s for an Olivier-winning turn as the monstrous Jud in the National Theatre’s Oklahoma) Hensley created The Monster on Broadway before touring with the show and he breathes a life into one of the canon’s most curious characters. His Monster has to evolve from being of virtually zero-intelligence, to a creature that’s far more sophisticated. To reveal any more would be to spoil - suffice to say that Hensley masters the transformation magnificently.

As this review is published, the producers have announced that the run is extending into late 2018. Hurrah! Young Frankenstein is a fabulous night out.

Booking until 29th September 2018

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Mamma Mia - Review

Novello Theatre, London

*****

Music and lyrics by Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus
Book by Catherine Johnson
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd

l-r Kim Ismay, Dianne Pilkington and Rebecca Lock in the finale

Mamma Mia the first (and arguably the best) of the latter-day juke box musical genre, was born more than 15 years ago from the timeless legacy of Sweden's most famous export, the 1970's supergroup Abba. Sometimes schmaltzy for sure, but Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus' lyrics speak of ordinary lives, of simple relationships and of familiar loves and losses. Most of human life is wrapped up in one or t’other of their songs and it is a testament to Catherine Johnson that her book, woven around a selection of Abba’s greatest hits, works so well.

Superficially, the narrative follows a gloriously honeyed and nigh on implausible tale of 20 yo Sophie trying to find her dad amongst a possible three of mum Donna's former fellas. The show is of course a modern day fairy-tale, for scratch the surface and the emotions that underlie Sophie's quest are raw, relevant and above all recognisable. Her sometimes angst at having grown up fatherless strikes a contemporary chime, whilst Donna's gloriously feisty and strong independence is a sincere carapace that nonetheless surrounds a post-modern woman still craving love.

Johnson is a genius, for as well as creating a mother and child whose arcs we care about, she adds two of Donna's outrageous old friends Tanya and Rosie for chick-flick comedy. Stir in the three potentially paternal old flames of Donna, who each have to consider that they may well have sired Sophie before unwittingly abandoning a young mum to be, and its all rather cheesy but actually rather brilliant. There’s some smashing ensemble work too with Anthony van Laast’s choreography still proving that young men in latex and spandex, with flippers in place of tap shoes, make for a dance routine that will never age.

And what of this most recent cast? Dianne Pilkington's Donna gets the blend of sassy with mumsy just right, coaxing "ah's" from the audience with I Do, I Do, having previously shredded the heart strings of most parents in the house singing the painfully perceptive Slipping Through My Fingers. Alice Stokoe makes her West End debut with an impressive and slick soprano Sophie. Kim Ismay and Rebecca Lock’s Tanya and Rosie respectively provide (most of) the evening’s laughs, Ismay in particular proving why she has defined her man-eating cougar over the years. Amongst the dads (all top chaps, to a man) the chiseled presence of Richard Trinder’s Sam Carmichael adds an almost believable credibility to the wonderfully ridiculous fairy-tale ending.

There aren't too many shows around that, sixteen years on, can still pack a Monday night theatre. The audience ranged from school parties through to middle-aged business men and grinning septuagenarians all blended in with a selection of tourists that outmatched the United Nations for variety. Mamma Mia remains flawless entertainment and another example of London's West End at its very best.

Booking until 2015 at the Novello Theatre

The In Between - CD Review

*****

Music, Lyrics and Book by Laura Tisdall

The In Between is a new musical by accomplished young musician Laura Tisdall, and it is quite simply an extraordinary composition. Writing music, lyrics and book, Tisdall has released a concept album of 7 songs from her show, extracts of which were recently performed at London’s West End Live 2012.

Venturing into Philip Pullman territory , Tisdall’s In Between of the title,  is the space between two parallel worlds, into which her protagonist Flick Wimple steps. Orphaned at 8, and guided to early adulthood by her well meaning sister Alice who is 11 years her  senior, the story finds Flick at 19. The album opens with the song She’s My Sister, in which Flick as a young woman on the verge of adulthood, describes the typical frustrations that adolescents feel towards the parent/guardian figure in their life. The song echoes aspects of Miracle from Tim Minchin’s Matilda, not just because both shows inhabit fictitious worlds that spin on slightly different axes , but rather because both songs brilliantly define their story’s key character. Through a range of tempos and styles, Ms Tisdall’s lyrics are witty, and her musical composition is both clever and refreshing on the ear. For this song , the sisters’ roles are sung by Dianne Pilkington and Cassandra Compton, and these two talented vocalists set the excellent standard that is upheld throughout the album.

In Never Expect, Sabrina Aloueche sings of Flick’s being an outsider, not a part of the cliques of life and when she sings the line “I’m not a golden girl” one is reminded of Elphaba’s inability to fit in, in Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked. Tisdall’s song is more upbeat than say, I’m Not That Girl, from Schwartz’s composition, and within that context serves to define Flick’s character in a positive, rather than introspective manner, with no hint of self-pity.

Most musicals feature the human conditions of love and desire, often against challenging odds. The In Between introduces Flick to Guide Calicus, a young man who is a part of that space between the worlds, and with whom it is suggested, Flick establishes a relationship. On the concept CD, two of Calicus’ solo numbers are included, Out Of Your World, performed by Daniel Boys and Beyond the Door, sung by Hadley Fraser. Both of these songs have a resonance that could truly fill a large stage. Boys encourages the cautious Flick to consider venturing from her world whilst Fraser decribes in a soaring performance, the world that he wants Flick to make her own.

Alice’s character is given a further song on the CD, and Julie Atherton’s version of When I Was 19, is a poignant look back from an elder sibling, at the challenges her sister has faced. It is pleasing to hear Atherton away from a comic performance, and to be reminded just how versatile, perceptive and above all, moving her delivery can be.

 Flick’s biggest number on the concept recording is Someone You’ll Be Proud Of . A song that opens peacefully, addressed to her dead parents and then evolves into a wave of voice and music as Flick celebrates her growth into maturity. Lauren Samuels has been tasked with performing this number and she does not disappoint. Past the middle-eight, her singing is positively spine-tingling.

Alexia Khadime and Liam Tamne perform Not Alone, and they deliver what is the CD’s only duet of Flick and Calicus, with impressive strength and harmony.

This concept release is virtually faultless. Tisdall has crafted a modern musical that echoes contemporary themes of story telling yet weaves traditional journeys of love and self discovery, into 25 minutes of sheer listening pleasure. Based upon these 7 songs alone, the entire show should be outstanding. Buy this recording and support the work. The In Between deserves a staging soon and has the potential to become a major West End hit.

@jaybeegee63