Mel Brooks’s “eagerly awaited musical version of “Young Frankenstein,” which opened last night at the Hilton Theatre, is such a teeter-tottering patchwork of slipshod gags, recycled dance routines and tinny tunes that even some of the better material ends up feeling a bit shrill and hollow.”
Tag: 11.09.07
Top Ten Most Re-Read Books
Harry Potter tops the list. “Nearly 80 per cent of Britons have re-read a book, with the Harry Potter series the most likely to be picked up again.”
Young Frankenstein – “Fitfully Entertaining”
“Sure, the new musical — replete with the kind of pastiche novelty songs that Brooks has made his specialty — has deliciously diverting patches, but too often it leaves us noticeably shy of that laugh-induced state of delirium he has always been better at instigating than sustaining.”
Brooks’ “Frankenstein” Is A Monster
“With the exception of about a dozen jokes (nearly all of which were pulled verbatim from the film) and an Act II showstopper, the final product has a shockingly lackadaisical, dashed-off quality that no amount of whiz-bang stagecraft can conceal.”
Celebrating The You-Had-To-Be-There Experience
Performa 07 is New York’s 20-day biennial of performance art. It’s “a celebration of transience, a paean to you-had-to-be-there, a deep and exhilarating bow to we-have-only-now. Conditions for burning are right: a market clogged with knickknacks and cash. How appropriate, then, that so many pieces pay particular attention to the intersection between performance art and dance.”
Broadway Close To Strike Shutdown
Broadway’s stagehands union got strike authorization Thursday night, and a walkout not appears likely. “If the stagehands do walk out, it will be the second time in less than five years that much of Broadway has been shut down by a strike.”
One Way To Draw Attention To A Landmark Building
At New York’s Lever House lobby at Park Avenue and 54th Street, “viewers will confront a veritable Noah’s Ark of roadkill — 30 dead sheep, one dead shark, two sides of beef, 300 sausages, a pair of doves — that the British artist Damien Hirst describes as his most mature piece.”