When a film as perfect as Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein exists, you might well be forgiven for asking what need is there for a live version? As the opening night of this production hysterically demonstrated, the possibility for chaos thanks to the ephemeral nature of live theatre is reason enough.
That ephemerality created a sequence of events that saw: a cast member (Simeon Truby as Inspector Kemp) join the audience to watch the show, a stage manager announce there would be a pause in the action – leaving Inspector Kemp ad-libbing for all he was worth – and then another member of stage management arrive to tell the audience, “just wait here and … entertain yourselves”. Someone did eventually remember a cast member had been left adrift and Truby was rescued. Then we were told that Inga (Julie Yammanee) had suffered an injury and that Jessica Wright, from the ensemble, would be stepping into Inga’s shoes. Within minutes she performed an astoundingly accomplished tap dance routine. What other medium gives you such moments?
Who else but Mel Brooks can give you a story that is at once pastiche and homage to the original? His book, co-written with Thomas Meehan, tells the tale of Shelley’s famed doctor’s grandson travelling to Transylvania to claim the castle which is his inheritance. He discovers his grandfather’s experiment and attempts to rekindle the spark of life in a new monster.
The story descends into chaos and becomes less relevant as the action goes on. It is all about the set pieces.
Director Nick Winston’s background as a choreographer is clear and there is a slickness to this production that belies its fringe theatre beginnings. While it looks impressive, it feels there is a heft missing, the comedy not mined as much as it could be – the sequence with a revolving wall, iconic when Gene Wilder performed it, becomes leaden in the hands of Daniel Brocklebank’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein. As Igor, Curtis Patrick attempts the impossible task of following Marty Feldman in the movie role and his over-gurning sets him up to fail, but as he owns the role he becomes ever more watchable. By the time Pete Gallagher’s Monster reveals his erudition, the ordered chaos has become irresistible and hysterical and truly alive.
• At Liverpool Playhouse until 3 January
