Young Frankenstein: The New Mel Brooks Musical
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Free Music Notes for Young Frankenstein: The New Mel Brooks Musical
Free Music Review: BEST MUSICAL SCORE IN YEARS
Hit: 5 Stars
Having been a big fan of The Producers, I was unprepared for how much Mel Brooks has matured as a composer and lyricist since then. The score for Young Frankenstein is nothing short of brilliant and one of the best original scores I have heard in years! Not only does Mel prove himself in comedy numbers like Please Don't Touch Me (excellent), but he also goes into an operatic area for Let My Creature Live, something Sir Webber might have written. Then he goes into a very dramatic "He's Loose" when the creature escapes. There's the vaudeville-style Together Again, a very funny German melody in Roll in the Hay (simple but brilliant), the very old-fashioned Broadway sound in Join the Family Business, a very fun Transylvania Mania, 2 beautiful balleds Listen to your Heart and Please Send Me Someone, plus other songs that are absolutely brilliant.
I could not have asked for a better 2nd score from Mel Brooks. Those who do not like this score are those who do not appreciate the type of musical this is-the score is similar in style to the old-0fashioned broadway sound, and some Broadway moderns just can't accept this style anymore, opting for Phantom, Sondheim or Drowsy Chaperone type scores. But this is Broadway at it's best and if you want a fun, catchy, wonderful score, I recommend this as the best original cast recording and composition in many years, way ahead of the Producers (which I loved) in brilliance.
Bravo to Mel Brooks. I was saddened to see three days ago that the American Theater Wing and the Tony Nominating board chose to completely snub this wonderful musical. I now have absolutely no doubt that the Tony Awards have taken the path of the Academy Awards and are becoming more and more political. The Producers took every single award in it's Tony year, and now they feel they must snub an even greater score. No best music nomination, no best original score, nothing for Susan Strohman, and sadly enough, no best actor nomination for lead Roger Bart. I now have a much lower view of the Tony awards and its process. Xanadu, which was nominated, was mainly NOT an original score, this was. That tells you what is happening to the Tony's and they deserve the loss in ratings they are getting every year on CBS. Sad there won't be a musical number from Young Frankenstein on the show this year.
Give this recording a chance if you love Broadway. Every time you listen to it, you will love it more. Not one song is less than terrific.
Free Music Review: Slightly underwhelming
Hit: 3 Stars
So how do you follow up "The Producers"? From the start, no matter how well the play is performed, it will always be compared to Mel Brooks's last play. "The Producers" was a critical and commercial smash, and it's hard to give a favorable comparison.
That being said, I felt the songs were underwhelming, lacking the punch of Brooks' earlier works on stage and in film. The lyrics range from the corny to the predictable, but that is not to say the score is without highlights.
Obviously "Puttin' on the Ritz" is by far the most enjoyable song. It's not a song by Brooks, but rather Berlin, and it succeeds in this context primarily to the monster's famous attempt to sing the title line. Other catchy songs are Sutton Foster gamily yodeling "Roll in the Hay," Andrea Martin's "He Vas my Boyfriend," and Megan Mullally's "Please Don't Touch Me," putting a fun twist on the we're-not-in-love song.
The lyrics are filled with double entendres that feel old, as if we've heard them several times before, most noticeably in "Deep Love." It has a very Borscht Belt style to it.
It's not a bad score, just not a very good one. They must hope that the love audiences have for the original film will carry over to the play.
Free Music Review: Not worth the money
Hit: 2 Stars
At one point I had written a long review in regards to this CD, Amazon didn't like it because they said it included too many "personal opinions" so here is my "New" review:
Orchestration - 2 stars - tinny sounding, karaoke-esque quality
Lyrics - 2 stars - Childish, stretching for rhymes, repetitious, un-funny
Vocal Quality - 3 stars - It was obvious that most of the actors "could" sing but were not used to their ability
Vocal Acting - 1 star - campy, corny, and accents that appeared and disappeared.
Final Review - 2 stars, this is a sad decline in the work of Mel Brooks.
Free Music Review: Will Not Put Money In Their Pockets
Hit: 1 Stars
When they decided to charge $375 for the top tickets, I decided that there was no way I was going to aid Mel Brooks and company in the destruction of broadway. (Disney is doing a pretty good job of that as well!) There is only one reason for those ticket prices..GREED! I don't care how good or bad Young Frankenstein is, I refuse to put money in their pockets, and that means staying away from the CD as well. And having heard most of the score now on Accuradio, I can say without a doubt that it is pedestrian, tasteless and dull. All the classic lines from the film are there, but now the wit has been stripped out of them, and only high school bathroom humor is left. Obnoxious and stupid!Free Music Review: Young Frankenstein is monsterously bad
Hit: 1 Stars
Having loved the score for The Producers, I finally broke down and bought this album despite all the negative reviews of the show. Just as the overwrought film version of The Producers blew most of the charm out of the original show, the original cast album of Young Frankenstein takes the same disasterous approach. A few good songs occur, almost by accident, but most of the score is pedestrian. However, the bigger problem lies in the nature of the original film. Young Frankenstein is a far subtler (and better) comedy, probably more a tribute to Gene Wilder's touch on the screenplay than Mel Brooks directorial hand. As such, the score for the musical works against the mood of the show rather than taking it to a new level as The Producers score did.
All in all, a colossal disappointment.