Young Frankenstein Review

                                           Young Frankenstein 2024 Review 

5/5 

A production that’s as incredible as the film itself. 

This musical adaptation of Mel Brooks’ 1974 film is a stunning and out of this world show that has everything you want from a musical spoof. 

 

Whenever anyone thinks of film genres they would state the obvious like Action, sci-fi, mystery, drama, adaptations including musicals and books etc. In the 1960’s and 1970’s though they’re was a genre which was etched into films and was known in the UK and US as spoof movies. Spoof movies involved taking a piece of source material and making a parody of it. Some of the most famous spoof movies include; Casino Royale in 1967, Space balls, Robin Hood Men in Tights, Monty Python, The Carry on films and one of the most well known spoofs Airplane! In 1974, 13 years before Space balls was released, Mel Brooks directed a spoof parody named Young Frankenstein starring Gene Wilder as Frankenstein. The film was a critical success and this small run of Spoof movies was starting to take real flight. Young Frankenstein was transferred to Broadway in 2007 and then London in 2017. The show received positive to mixed reviews on Broadway and closed in 2009. In London it received critical acclaim during it’s limited run in London with a cast including Hadley Fraser and Ross Noble. 

Young Frankenstein tells the story of Frederick Frankenstein the son of his grandfather Victor Frankenstein, who is studying at an elite medicine school in New York. While studying in New York, he finds out that his grandfather has passed away and is forced to return to his grandfather’s mansion. Frederick thinks he’s returning to Transylvania to sign off his grandfather’s lease and then heading straight back to New York to continue studying but then he meets Igor, who used to work under Victor when he was still alive and a beautiful laboratory assistant named Inga who quite fancies Frederick. While back at his grandfathers house in the library, Frederick discovers his grandfather’s old book of Inventions and has a huge brainwave and starts to rework them with deadly consequences. 

Going into this I hadn’t seen the original 74 film or the musical so I was going into this show not knowing what was going to happen. However, I came out of this production with a huge amount of Joy. 

Young Frankenstein is an incredible production with a vast amount of source material to make this show feel as if it is another real adaptation of The Mel Brooks Film and maybe just maybe as good as the film itself. As a show made by students, this is a show that really feels professional and could be a West end production. There are a lot of positives to take from this show and here is what I think made this show so enjoyable. 

They're many reasons why Young Frankenstein is an utterly incredible production and one of the main elements that made this show so enjoyable is how funny it is. The script is filled to the brim with brilliant humour and a lot of sex jokes. In addition, the script has all the elements combined to make this show feel watchable and also like an American version of the Monty Python sketches sprinkled in as well.

Another huge amount of positivity to come from this show is of course the songs and nearly all of them are fantastic. The only one I didn't like was Please don't touch me, which felt quite repetitive and undercooked in my opinion. However, apart from that song the rest range from decent to Out of this world. Some honourable mentions first and they are: The Transylvania Mania as a brilliant ending to Act One which sets up act two, The Brain, Deep Love and Life Life. Now while these songs were brilliant they do not beat my top picks so here are my own personal favourites from the show which were: Together Again as a fun, wacky and catchy number that reminded me of the Open Road from The Wind in the Willows, Roll In the Hay while I found it very raunchy in some areas it will still raucous and very funny, He was my Boyfriend was a real stunner and Esme Rose really controlled the stage and her performance in that number. Now for my two personal favourites. Join The family Business, excels for me because of the amount of class, character and passion that was put into this number and it was brilliant to admire the storytelling happening in the number. Finally and there is no doubt that Putting on the Ritz is the best song from the show and I'm running out of words to describe this song but it was seriously out of this world. From the outstanding toe tapping choreography, to the big flashy lighting it was a real pleasure to be able watch and be in real awe of the amount of effort in one number alone was so magical and inspiring and felt something straight off the west end.

I will conclude this by saying thank you to everyone involved with Young Frank who made this production happen and creating a lot of memories that will last a long time.

A Truly professional Production.


Written by Fenny Loader.

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