Young Frankenstein

photo: Paul Kolnik

A staging of movie scenes faithful enough to make the audience laugh before the punchlines, Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein more resembles Spamalot than The Producers. But unlike the hit Monty Python show, the musical numbers in Brooks' show are mostly time-wasters, and not a single one of them builds to the delerious lunacy of the best numbers in Spamalot. While the show is diverting and colorful (and all design elements are top-notch: no one will ever accuse this team of doing the show on the cheap) its combination of Borscht Belt humor and ho-hum stagings make it generally unexciting. Andrea Martin is the cast standout, but there's nothing wrong with any of the performers that sharper material wouldn't cure.