Young Frankenstein “hugely entertaining, a bit rude and a lot of fun.”

Reviewed by: Cate Prestidge

Hamilton Musical Theatre (HMT) has produced another winner with entertaining Mel Brooks’ comedy, Young Frankenstein.

The successful Saturday Night Fever team of director Mike Williams and choreographer Emelia Jennings are back with the addition of Jonty Climo as co-director. The co-direction is a smart move, bringing complementary skills and growing the creative production base within the company. Experienced musical director Julia McIntyre is an excellent addition to the team leading the tight, 12-piece stage band.

From the opening scene the 30 strong cast shows its polish and energy and the big numbers just keep coming. It’s hugely entertaining, completely silly, a bit rude and a lot of fun.

Lead Michael Deibert is a welcome addition to the Hamilton theatre scene. He’s tremendous as Frederick, grandson of Victor Frankenstein. 

As Igor, Paris Eyeington scuttles and slides, bringing comic physicality to this pivotal role and Rachael Bloemendal is terrific as beautiful ‘lab assistant’ Inga.   

A feature of this show is that all understudies get a performance, and it was the turn of the excellent Marianne Kay to take on stony Frau Blücher (catch Alice Collins in the other shows). This core group of four play off each other well and are vocally impressive.

Kathryn Harris plays vain, high maintenance fiancée Elizabeth with panache and was in great voice. Ross Murphy has gravitas and presence as Inspector Kemp, and Duncan Bouwer tugs at the heart strings as the slightly bonkers hermit Harold.

I was impressed with Sam Armstrong as The Monster. Dealing with prosthetic makeup and maintaining the physicality of his character both in movement and voice, is no mean feat.   

A key aspect of the show for me was the impressive choreography and the focus and commitment of the entire ensemble. Their versatility across a range of minor roles and action on stage was well-honed.

The set and props are great with a suitably creepy operating table and fun hay wagon, hermit’s cave and laboratory. Large stone walls frame a lot of the action, doubling as castle and township. This simplifies the scene changes, which are integrated well into the action by cast and crew. Regular readers will know a pet hate of mine is long, blackout scene changes which slow the action, so I loved this approach. The cyclorama was used to good effect with projections, especially in the hay ride – brilliant fun.

Climo says this is the show he’s proudest of, and rightly so. I could find little to fault aside from a few minor technical glitches on the day and it nice to see younger HMT performers coming through the ranks into the adult shows. Highly recommended.

Details

Written by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan

Presented by Hamilton Musical Theatre

Directed by Mike Williams and Jonty Climo

On at Riverlea theatre until May 29

Tickets https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2023/may/young-frankenstein

NB Recommended for 15+ – some mature content