Friday, November 9, 2007

HE. VAS. MY. BOYFRIEND! The reviews are out for “The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein” (its official title), and the Times is "meh" on it, as is the Boston Globe (saying that it "spoil[s] the humor by pointing at it with giant neon arrows"). NY Daily News says good-but-not-as-good-as-The-Producers, as does the Associated Press. Many other reviews here.

Young Frankenstein is just a really hard work to adapt, as these reviews note, because unlike The Producers so much of its greatness comes from its cinematic qualities -- the pitch-perfect look-and-feel of classic horror films, and the fact that no one in the movie, save Igor, knows that s/he is in a comedy. It's a lot easier to turn Leo and Max into musical stars than Dr. Victor Fronk-en-steen, and in the former you just had to add more music to a show that's about a musical anyway. Maybe Brooks will have better luck with Blazing Saddles, which is more explicitly comic in its moves.

Still, whenever anyone mentions Frau Blucher, my response is automatic.

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