Performing Arts

NEW YORK – This may not be saying a lot, but Young Frankenstein is more fun that I thought it was going to be.

Mel Brooks' own stage adaptation of his giddy movie spoof of horror films has been playing at Broadway's Hilton Theatre since the fall. I wasn't a big fan of Mr. Brooks' previous blockbuster, The Producers, so my expectations were minimal.

Young Frankenstein, though, hangs together in a way that its slapdash predecessor didn't. True, The Producers produced a greater number of genuine belly laughs, but those were mostly secondhand jokes from the screenplay.

Young Frankenstein, though a new musical, paradoxically feels like one of those extravagant shows from the 1920s: lots of crude remarks about female body parts, lots of old-time shtick, some really swell and unpretentious dance numbers by director-choreographer Susan Stroman.

Of course, 50 or 60 years ago, the songs would have been by a master such as Irving Berlin, rather than the tin-eared Mr. Brooks. Fortunately for the audience (though the comparison does Mr. Brooks no favors), Young Frankenstein does use a famous Berlin tune, "Puttin' on the Ritz," at its climax. It's not only the best song in the score, it boasts the funniest moments, as the Monster (Shuler Hensley) bellows the title lyric every time the words return. He also gradually learns to hoof in a galloomphingly delightful way.

Roger Bart, one of Broadway's top second bananas, seems a little over-parted as Dr. Frankenstein, though he's charming enough. Megan Mullally draws too heavily on her Will & Grace persona as his erstwhile fiancée. Sutton Foster is adequate as the alluring lab assistant (which is more than you could say for her Tony Award-winning turn in Thoroughly Modern Millie). Sadly, Andrea Martin was out of the cast at Wednesday's matinee; her understudy, Linda Mugleston, didn't provide us with one of those legendary moments where the standby goes on and becomes a star. Christopher Fitzgerald's Igor is full of crafty comic bits.

Thanks largely to Ms. Stroman and to a great design team, I enjoyed Young Frankenstein more than Monty Python's Spamalot and much more than The Producers without the original stars, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. I even came out humming a couple of Mr. Brooks' silly little ditties, "A Roll in the Hay" and "He Vas My Boyfriend."

Hilton Theatre, 213 W. 42nd St., New York. $50 to $120. Ticketmaster at 1-800-755-4000, www.ticketmaster.com.

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