Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 31st October 2014
Celebrating their fortieth anniversary year, the Marie Clark Musical Theatre Company are presenting the South Australian premiere of
Young Frankenstein, the
Mel Brooks musical, based on the forty year old film by Brooks and
Gene Wilder that parodied the early films that were based on the novel by
Mary Shelley.
Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced Fronkensteen) is a respected neurosurgeon, but he is also the grandson of the infamous mad scientist, Victor Von Frankenstein. On his grandfather's death he must, reluctantly, travel to Transylvania Heights to claim his inheritance, leaving behind his fiancée, Elizabeth Benning. On arriving he is met by the hunchback,
Igor (pronounced Eyegor), who expects him to take over where his grandfather had left off. Nothing is further from Frederick's mind, until Igor introduces him to the gorgeous and very willing to please, Inga, whom he has hired to be Frederick's laboratory assistant.
Frau Blucher, the housekeeper, adds further pressure to convince Frederick to take up his grandfather's mantle and, to his dismay, his grandfather and numerous ancestors appear to him, insisting that he continue in the family business. He succumbs and creates a monster, which goes on the rampage, taking with it Elizabeth who has arrived unexpectedly. Inspector Hans Kemp and the villagers arm themselves and go in pursuit, but things do not turn out quite the way that everybody expected.
Chris Daniels plays
Frederick Frankenstein, initially as a straight-laced man trying to play down his heritage and build a respectable life. Daniels takes us on the comic journey with him, led into the family business at first by Igor's enthusiasm, and Inga's obvious attributes, later coupled with scientific curiosity, and finally leading to obsession. Daniels does a fine job of finding the humour in Frederick's seduction.
Katharine Chase is his self-centred fiancée, with an arm's length approach to physical intimacy There are some good laughs in her first appearance, but that is setting up for later, when she meets and is carried off by the Monster, with hilarious consequences.
Anton Schrama is a standout as Igor, a character delivered with overtones of
Frank Spencer. The physicality of his performance alone is quite amazing and his delivery of his dialogue demonstrates great comic timing. the laughs just didn't stop as he cavorted around the stage doing his master's bidding.
Kristin Stefanoff is the buxom and lithe limbed Inga, who has Frederick's eyes popping from the first moment that she appears. A little eyelash flickering and his resolve to sort out the legal business and leavequickly dissolves. Stefanoff
Penni Hamilton-Smith's quirky Frau Blucher is a woman the mention of whose name is enough to frighten the horses, which it does, and the laughs come thick and fast, particularly when she reminisces about her love affair with the recently departed Victor.
Shay Aitken is a scream (sorry, I couldn't resist it) as the monster, tottering around in heavy platform boots, his face an unhealthy shade of green, and muscles on his muscles, but with a brain full of mush. Aitken makes the most of the monster's song and dance routine, keeping the audience in fits of laughter.
Aled Proeve, as the one armed, one legged, one eyed, Inspector Hans Kemp, Ashleigh McFadden, as the blind Hermit, and Bobby Goudie, as Ziggy, all get plenty of comic mileage out of their characters, and Matt Redmond does a really great job as Victor Von Frankenstein.
Directed by Brian Godfrey, with
musical direction by Ben Stefanoff, and choreography by Rachel Dow, the big musical numbers are one of the major strengths of this production.
On opening night there were many technical hitches, from stage crew caught on stage when the lights went up or, worse, coming on during the scene to finish setting furniture, and quite a few slow set changes, to missed lighting cues and inaccurate follow spots, and late microphones, as well as voices sometimes getting lost below the orchestra in the sound mix. A couple of extra technical rehearsals were badly needed. This disruption led to a few slow spots in the performance but, with a few more runs, this will hopefully get sorted out.
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