Synthia Link, Christopher Ryan, Cory English, Joanna Glushak and Preston Truman Boyd in Young Frankenstein, opening today at the Kravis Center.
By Hap Erstein
If he does say so himself, and he does, Mel Brooks considers Young Frankenstein to be the best of the 12 films he has directed.
“I’m not saying it’s my funniest, I’m saying it’s my best. In terms of my art, let’s say, as a filmmaker,” he explains by phone from his production offices in Culver City, Calif. “It’s certainly my best work as a filmmaker, because it captures the story on film better than any other of my films, including ‘The Producers,’ ‘Blazing Saddles,’ ‘History of the World’ or any of them.”
That is not to say that Young Frankenstein is his favorite. “Um, no. Maybe ‘Life Stinks’ is my favorite,” he offers. “Choosing a favorite is hard. I don’t know, did Picasso step back and say, ‘It’s the one where I put the two eyes on one side of the nose’? You know what I mean? I don’t know that the artist really has a perspective that counts. But I think it’s my finest artistic work.”
Yes, Brooks did just compare himself to Pablo Picasso. Never let it be said that he has a problem with low self-esteem.
With his affection for Young Frankenstein, it is not that surprising that it was supposed to be Brooks’ first film to be musicalized for the Broadway stage. “Yeah, I wanted to go to ‘Young Frankenstein’ first, but it didn’t have enough songs in it,” he says. “With ‘The Producers,’ I already had two great tunes. I had ‘Prisoners of Love’ and I had ‘Springtime for Hitler,’ which was such a big part of the evening.”
The Producers, of course, was a colossal hit on Broadway, winning 12 Tony Awards, more than any show before or since. According to Brooks, though, such success has a downside. Six years later, when he opened Young Frankenstein in New York, he insists the critics were gunning for him.
“I said, ‘I’ll be shot down, because they put you on a mountain peak, and you are a perfect target, for whatever you do next.’ That’s the way Broadway works. But we got enough good reviews. And we got enough wanna-see that for the first six months, we were in incredible profit. It did very well.”
Actually, Brooks long refused to disclose the weekly box office grosses for Young Frankenstein, so we will never really know whether it turned a profit on Broadway, though it seems unlikely. Still, he is quick to mention, “It’s doing, I must say, very, very well on the road. It’s attracting people, and I’ve got to say, every time I’ve seen it, it’s been standing ovations. I mean, without bragging.”
The national tour of Young Frankenstein, which opens today at West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center and runs this week through Sunday, is nothing if not lavish. Even in comparison to The Producers. “’The Producers’ cost about 10 (million dollars) and this one cost closer to 15,” he says with paternal pride. “That’s a lot of money. Now that’s nothing like the 65 million dollars that ‘Spider-Man’ is supposed to cost, but that was a lot of money in those days, $14-plus million dollars. I think it ran 14 months on Broadway, so a million for every month. That’s a pretty damn good run.”
Young Frankenstein was not reviewed very favorably on Broadway, but at least Brooks can console himself that another show was reviewed worse. “Now ‘The Addams Family,’ for instance, is running on Broadway. No musical in the history of Broadway ever got such bad reviews, from ‘The New York Times’ to the subway free press. It was pretty unanimous that this was the worst musical comedy ever, ever written.”
Yet, he notes, it remains popular with audiences, often selling out all seats. “You can’t keep people away from it and I think the magic is probably – the secret between you, me and the world – is Nathan Lane. He’s just too magnetic and too talented. I don’t care what the thing is all about, if Nathan does his stuff, you’re going to get your money’s worth.”
Young Frankenstein has had no such star power, on Broadway or on the road. Still, Brooks insists, it deserves culinary praise. “ ‘Young Frankenstein’ is an appetizer, it’s soup, it’s salad, a main course. It’s a thrilling dessert and maybe an Irish coffee or a great espresso. It’s really a satisfying, ethereal, emotional, psychological meal. It’s a whole meal. You feel sated. When you leave that show, you pat your mind instead of your belly, and you say, ‘That was good.’ ”
At 84, Brooks is clearly relishing his new career as the king of Broadway, feeling there is nothing so enjoyable as having a hit show there. “No, nothing at all. Because it takes 18 months to two years before a thought in your mind becomes a movie,” he explains. “And you’ve gone through so much and finally, you’re sitting in the dark and there’s no visceral connection with the people on the screen.
“But on Broadway, or on a stage anywhere, there’s that kinetic and visceral connection. You feel it. You literally get goosebumps. When somebody hits a high note and it resonates, you’re ready to cry or laugh. It’s a very different emotional thing.
“I feel like walking up and down the aisles when my music plays and saying, ‘By the way folks, that’s an octave. I jumped a whole octave then.’ But I’m not allowed to do that. The ushers feel I’m interfering with the show.”
It has long been rumored that Blazing Saddles is next in line to receive a Brooksian transfer to the musical stage. True, Mel?
“Well, it’s running around in my mind. I don’t know if it will ever come out,” he concedes. “But I like thinking about it, I like ruminating on what the songs might be. I’d like to celebrate the glory of the Western, too.”
But for the moment, he is too busy enjoying Young Frankenstein and urging theatergoers to do whatever it takes to acquire tickets to it.
“It’s such a damn good musical. If there’s a little old lady in front of you at the box office and they’re running out of tickets, push her aside,” he instructs. “I say something really good doesn’t come along very often and you’ve got to take measures to get yourself those tickets.”
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Tuesday, Feb. 1 - Sunday, Feb. 6. Tickets: $25 and up. Call: (561) 832-7469 or (800) 572-8471.