Young Frankenstein--OBC album

Spoofs are a difficult balance, I would suppose, particularly when a spoof from one medium is adapted into another--as is the case with Young Frankenstein. Fortunately, with the practiced hands of Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman (who previously shepherded The Producers to the stage) that balance is handled deftly in most cases with their new show.

Mel Brooks is the composer and lyricist for these shows--as well as being the screenwriter of the original films that are the source materials for the shows--and I wonder how much of a composer he is. I don't mean that as a slight to the music of Young Frankenstein. Clearly Mr. Brooks has very specific tunes in his head that he hears for each character and situation. Not surprisingly, many of the tunes have a slight Yiddish, Borscht-belt sound to them (as did tunes in The Producers). I'm certain Brooks doesn't orchestrate the songs, but does he harmonize them? Or just write down (or record) the tunes?

I used to joke that Roger Bart stole my career. A poor joke as Mr. Bart has obvious talents that I can only play-act at. I question Mr. Bart in this leading role, though. His light tenor voice is a little thin for my tastes. I could wish for a more robust sound from my leading man. The same for my leading lady. Megan Mullally is deft at delivering the single-entendres of her songs, but the timbre of her voice is a little modern and nasal for me. And I think I need to see the full show to understand why she has such a weird accent in the dialogue on this disk.

Sutton Foster and Schuler Hensley are two performers I have liked very much in past shows. Mr. Hensley isn't well-represented on this cast album, so it's hard to determine his performance. I continue to find Ms. Foster delightful. Yes, she also has a modern, slightly nasal singing voice, but somehow it doesn't strike me as much as Ms. Mullally's. Or perhaps it's the 2nd fiddle syndrome, where I want my leading lady to be a legit singer, while the comic duo can be different.

I have the cast album of Shrek with Ms. Foster waiting for my Thinking; perhaps we'll see how I like her in a leading lady position.

The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein
Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Opened November 8, 2007
Cast: Roger Bart, Shuler Hensley, Sutton Foster, Megan Mullally, Andrea Martin, Fred Applegate

The Great American Trailer Park Musical--Original Cast recording on CD

I hesitate to poke fun at trailer parks; as someone working in the arts, I will likely end up living in one--if I'm lucky. 'Til then, though, I will have a hoot listening to the recording of The Great American Trailer Park Musical. I laughed out loud more often listening to this score than any I've encountered yet in my Year. I must put more spoof musicals on the docket.



I don't want to give away any of the jokes, most of which lie in the pop-culture-ridden lyrics, but I will say there is a funny take-off on the 80s disco number "It's Raining Men" by the Weathergirls.

The cast of 7 is uniformly good--particularly the women, several of whom act as a sort of Greek chorus as well as their primary characters. Orfeh is new to my Year, but not new to me. She's enjoying a significant musical theater career--and her singing on this disc shows why. The other familiar name in the cast is Shuler Hensley, who was in the production of Oklahoma! with Hugh Jackman I encountered early in my Year. Mr. Hensley also created the role of the Monster in Mel Brooks's musicalization of his Young Frankenstein, now running on Broadway.

Mr. Hensley doesn't have a lot to sing in Trailer Park, and that which he does sing is only so-so. If I had one gripe about this show, I wished for a song for the men that was a funny and singable as most of the stuff for the female characters.




The Great American Trailer Park Musical
Music and Lyrics by David Nehls
Book by Betsy Kelso
Premiered in 2004, recorded in 2005
Cast: Kaitlin Hopkins, Shuler Hensley, Orfeh, Marya Grandy, Leslie Kritzer, Linda Hart, Wayne Wilcox

Oklahoma! 1998 London Stage Production on DVD

I can't believe I've gone almost a month into my Year and not yet listened to a show by the grand poobahs of American Musical Theater--Rodgers and Hammerstein. Well to make up for that lapse, I'd better choose a good show and a good production to start the discussion. And with the filmed version of the 1998 London stage production of Oklahoma!, I've met both those criteria. Stage director Trevor Nunn has been putting the exclamation point on musicals all of my adult life.

This production was Hugh Jackman's introduction to the world, I believe, and on behalf of gay men all over the world--thank you Mr. Nunn. Mr. Jackman is well cast as Curly, with a good singing voice and charming demeanor. If his acting is perhaps not as nuanced as some of the other performers, or if his Curly doesn't quite project some vulnerability to balance the bravado, well, his bare chest helps make up for it.

The real star of this production for me is Josefina Gabrielle as Laurie. Ms. Gabrielle proves herself a true triple threat, singing Laurie's rangy songs without getting tinny in her upper register, truly dancing (not just performing dance steps) in the dream ballet, and most impressively, imbuing Laurie with real inner conflict about her impending womanhood and the choices she must make. For the first time, I saw Laurie as a microcosm for the state of Oklahoma. Just as territory folks are thinking about what's to be gained and lost in becoming a state, Laurie struggles with her statehood.

If you rent this DVD through Netflix or by other means, be sure to watch the DVD extras, which are on a separate disc. Not only was it nice to here the performers talk in their usual British accents, but the "making of" part of the DVD answered some questions I had about how they filmed this in front of an audience (the brief answer is that they didn't). One beef about the extra DVD--the talking heads aren't clearly identified. The actors are obvious, Trevor Nunn is obvious, Richard Rodgers's daughter Mary and choreographer Susan Stroman--not so much, and poor Ted Chapin of the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization could be just about anyone, if you didn't know.

Oklahoma!
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics and Book by Oscar Hammerstein II
1998 Royal National Theatre Production
Directed by Trevor Nunn
Choreographed by Susan Stroman
Released on DVD in 1999 by Image Entertainment
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Josefina Gabrielle, Shuler Hensley, Peter Polycarpou, Jimmy Johnston, Vicki Simon, Maureen Lipman