Father Of Young Frankenstein

Mel Brooks’ Broadway version of "The Producers" was without a doubt a colossal success. The musical ran for almost six years at the St. James Theatre, completing nearly 2,600 performances and grossing more than $238 million.

Two national tours and productions in eight countries, along with a Las Vegas run, netted an additional $1 billion for Brooks’ adaptation of his 1968 film. Add in records for the most Tony Award nominations (15) and most awards received (12) and what do you have? A tremendous amount of pressure for whatever comes next.

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Since it opened last November at New York City’s Hilton Theatre, Brooks’ adaptation of "Young Frankenstein" has faced lukewarm reviews, along with criticism about its ticket prices and the decision not to follow a long-standing tradition of reporting box-office grosses to the trades.

Pollstar recently got the opportunity to speak with Brooks about translating the beloved film for the stage and ask him about some of the things that have dogged the live production.

Brooks said he was initially hesitant to adapt "Young Frankenstein," even though the success of "The Producers" made it inevitable he would do another musical.

"You know, ‘The Producers’ was such an enormous hit, almost from opening night, that many people kept saying, ‘You gotta do another one!’" Brooks told Pollstar. "They all wanted ‘Blazing Saddles.’ Nobody mentioned ‘Young Frankenstein’ because they thought it was black and white and maybe a little too dour."

While he agreed that another musical was probably a good idea, Brooks said his first plan was to do an original piece in the style of "a Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore mixup." Then while he was walking to lunch one day, inspiration struck.

"I’m walking and I’m singing, ‘He vas my boyfriend!’ I don’t know where it came from. And I was breaking myself up with all kinds of ‘He would knock me to the floor! He would call me dirty whore, but I didn’t give a damn! He vas my boyfriend!"

Brooks was so amused by the song he finished writing it so he could perform it for friends at parties. When he was done, he found that he had a solid start for adapting "Young Frankenstein," so he wrote a second song, "Please Don’t Touch Me," based on the late Madeline Kahn’s hysterical turn as Elizabeth in the film.

Realizing he was now "in it," he called writer Tom Meehan with whom he had collaborated on the producers and the pair set to work creating what Meehan described as "a gothic opera" – a task that wasn’t without its problems.

"I thought we would do it in two months," Brooks said. "Two and a half years later – because I didn’t want it to be the movie and yet I wanted the movie to be its cornerstone and its base.

"How do you open up and make this movie gorgeously theatrical – outrageously theatrical – and not tear the beautiful structure? It’s the best movie I’ve ever done – both writing and directing, with the help of Gene Wilder."

Brooks and Meehan finished the show, but then right before it was to start rehearsals, it suffered a pair of setbacks. First Kristin Chenoweth, who was originally slated to play the role of Elizabeth Benning, bowed out to take a role in the television series "Pushing Daisies." That problem was solved when Brooks got a call from Megan Mullally’s agent, which led to her taking on the part.

Then the St. James Theatre, where the show was planned to open, became unavailable. Brooks said that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

"‘The Pirate Queen’ was closing at the Hilton Theatre, which was big enough backstage to house this gorgeous show. It’s a big show…you’ve got Fredrick Frankenstein’s laboratory. So thank God we got the Hilton, because we never could have squeezed this show into the St. James."

As a matter of fact, Brooks said the size of the show is complicating plans to take it on the road.

"When we’re thinking of touring now, we’ve gotta knock out any house that can’t hold that laboratory, because we don’t wanna short change people. It’s such a great set. So many things happen. We just had a meeting about how to book it.

"Each town has one or two theatres. So, once you’ve got a company and you’ve got trucks and you’ve got a bass drum, or whatever, you’ve gotta figure out how to go from one town to another and not wait for a bigger theatre to be available. So it’s a logistical nightmare. But it can be done."

Don’t look for "Young Frankenstein" at a theatre near you anytime soon though, because Brooks learned a thing or two with "The Producers."

"We were a little too – my mother, who was a funny, great lady – I’d say, ‘Can we sit down and eat?’ And she’d say, ‘No you’re too previous.’ So we were a little too previous with ‘The Producers’ because we were only open a year when we went out.

"It’s better to let them come in from other cities to Broadway. Even though we were running at the same time – we ran for six years on Broadway. But still we packed the Broadway theatre. Those people from Cleveland that can come into New York, lets get ‘em into New York. Those people from Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, let’s get ‘em into New York. Then, the people that can’t come to New York – and there are millions of them – then we’ll take the show to them. So I think we would wait a year, certainly over a year, maybe two years before we went out on the road."

Brooks also has his doubts about ever launching a Las Vegas version of the show.

"‘The Producers’ is in Las Vegas. It’s been there over a year. I think it’s closing in February. For a book show, Las Vegas has got a strange sensibility, you know? It’s like French clowns diving into what you think is water and being worried. It’s those kind of shows. Mostly the town is covered by these French Canadians who do these ‘Cirque du Soliel’ [shows]. And audiences have been spoiled, because for roughly 70 or 80 minutes, they watch this.

"You know, a book show is hard to cut down to 90 minutes. I was able to do it with ‘The Producers,’ 95 minutes, and I don’t think I can cut ‘Young Frankenstein’ down and still give the audience the show it was intended to be.

"So Vegas is problematic. I’m not sure about playing Las Vegas. I don’t know if their sensibility would allow a big book show like this. I understand ‘Phantom’ isn’t doing that well and we’re kind of ‘Phantom’ with big laughs. I don’t think there’s any laughs in ‘Phantom.’"

As for the cool, sometimes borderline hostile reviews "Young Frankenstein" has gotten, Brooks agreed some of that was inevitable based on the success of his previous musical and how much people love the 1974 movie.

"You’re absolutely right. Some of it is predictable. I said, ‘There’s gonna be a backlash.’ I knew it when they savaged both Matthew and Nathan Lane – Matthew Broderick – when they did ‘Doc’ Simon’s play, ‘The Odd Couple.’ I said, ‘Okay, bad reviews, but why this?’ This must be the backlash."

Another thing that has colored people’s perceptions of the show’s success is the lack of box-office reports. Brooks said that was a mistake.

"I asked this producer of mine, Bob Sillerman, I said, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said, ‘Well, when the times are really good, they hate you for making so much money and you’re bragging. And then later on in a couple of years, when things drop off, they read the paper and say, ‘I don’t want to see that. It’s a flop.’ That’s why they don’t do it in England.’ In London, this is never done. Numbers are never given out.

"I don’t think it was a good idea, but he’s a very good producer and that’s the way – it wasn’t a good idea. I think it’s a better idea to cave in and play ball with what’s going on. But he’s a maverick. He’s not that kind of guy and I like his style, so I went along with it."

Brooks thinks not disclosing box-office, coupled with confusion about ticket prices, has misled people about the show.

"That and the $450 ticket. The world thinks the tickets cost $450. I mean, there are maybe 12 of them. Out of 1,800 tickets, there are maybe 12 or 15 tickets that cost that kind of money. Ninety-five percent of the tickets are just at whatever the regular Broadway – $116 or whatever Broadway is paying for a ticket – that’s exactly it.

"Recently in The Post, somebody said, ‘The show’s in trouble.’ But we’re not! We’re probably doing better than anybody on Broadway. We’re not at all.

"I really think it’s a good thing they do, that TKTS booth on Times Square, where you can get – for almost every single show on Broadway, almost every night – you can get two tickets for the price of one if you’re patient and you wait on line long enough. But we’re not there. We’re not there. So if you’re not there, the perception should be, if you’re not there you’re not in any kind of trouble at all. You’re selling most – 90 percent – of your tickets.

"The only time we don’t sell – the only time we don’t sell almost every single seat is Wednesday matinees. There are always 30 or 40, maybe sometimes 80 tickets available. And Wednesday matinees, it makes sense to have that. People are working. Those Wednesday matinees seem to go away in the summer and you’re filled up again."

One thing Brooks thinks will help fill seats is the recently released cast album, which was recorded the old-fashioned way with all the participants – including Brooks – in the studio.

"Even though the stores – the physical venues – have kind of closed for music, for CDs, there’s still a few around. At all the bookstores, Borders and Barnes & Noble, they sell like crazy. And even in Starbucks, they sell. I think we’re going to be there. But what really sells is online. That’s where albums go like crazy. They buy it online.

"I think they’re gonna wanna see – they can smell the fun, they can smell the joy, they can even smell some of the fear and the frightening and the drama of it. Tom was right, it’s kind of like a gothic opera."

While he continues to work out further plans for "Young Frankenstein," Brooks won’t be doing another musical anytime soon. And there are no movies in the works either. Right now the only thing he’s working on is recording the voices of President Skroob and Yoghurt for an animated version of "Spaceballs" for G4TV.