On Stage This Week - "Young Frankenstein"

My pal Dave Lavender files this story about the upcoming performance of Young Frankenstein:

When Rory Donovan graduated college he hoped to land a role, any role, in a touring production. He sure landed a "big one."

Tromping around the stage in five-inch heels, Donovan gets to play the 7-foot-tall and about 4-foot wide monster that's created nightly in the campy comedic national tour of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.

Brought in as part of the Marshall Artists Series' 75th anniversary season, the musical will be performed in the historic Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10.

Tickets are $58, $50 and $45. Tickets can be purchased at the Marshall Artists Series box office, located on the east side of the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, or by calling 304-696-3326.

Donovan, a 27-year-old and 2011 Graduate of University of the Arts, said it's been a rip to be out nightly immersed in the camp of one of America's true comedic mad men, Mel Brooks. Brooks first twisted the classic Mary Shelley story in his Oscar-nominated smash hit 1974 film Young Frankenstein that starred Gene Wilder.

"It's a very cool and it's funny and it's campy and interesting and it doesn't get stale," Donovan said, "Some musicals doing them night after night you can feel a little stale. This one always feels fresh and always feels different and fun."

Young Frankenstein follows bright young Dr. Frankenstein (that's "Frankensteen") as he attempts to complete his grandfather's masterpiece and bring a corpse to life.

Together with his endearing helper Igor, his lab assistant Igna, and in spite of his self-absorbed fiancé Elizabeth, Frankenstein succeeds in creating a monster, but not without scary and quiet often hilarious complications.

Unfolding in the forbidding Castle Frankenstein and the foggy moors of Transylvania Heights, the show's raucous score includes "The Transylvania Mania," "He Vas My Boyfriend" and the unforgettable treatment of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' On the Ritz."

That razzle dazzle and slapstick comedy is the work of the Brooks, the three-time Tony winner who wrote the music and lyrics and co-wrote the book along with his record-breaking team from The Producers - five-time Tony winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman and three-time Tony winning writer, Thomas Meehan.

Stroman most recently won critical acclaim for her direction and choreography of the Broadway production of The Scottsboro Boys. She directed and choreographed The Producers, winner of a record-making 12 Tony Awards including Best Direction and Best Choreography.

Donovan said it's been amazing to be on stage when the musical magic of comedy, camp and choreography collide.

"Highlights for me are doing the hermit scene and that scene is always a blast because it is such well-written slapstick comedy and it really works off the audience," Donovan said. "That and 'Putting on the Ritz' and just feeling that energy every night. They know what is coming but they are going to laugh at it as if this is the first time they ever heard it."

Donovan said it's been a challenge but a lot of fun portraying the monster since all emotions get poured onto the stage nightly.

"The thing I really appreciate about the monster is that is innocence in its purest form," Donovan said. "The way I look at it it's like a new born baby in a 7-foot-tall-and-4-foot-wide body. Everything is acted to the nth degree. You're as terrified as possible and as happy as possible and every reaction is completely over the top like an infant would respond, and it's monstrous and a lot of fun."

Donovan, who grew up as a huge fan of Brooks' cult-classic comedy movies such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights and SpaceBalls said it's been really cool to turn on more of his generation to the earlier works of Brooks from the 1970s when he reeled off such classics as Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

"I think what this musical and The Producers does is that it helps people fall in love with his earlier work that I think my generation is a little less familiar with," Donovan said of Young Frankenstein which won the 2008 Outer Critics Circle Award and the Broadway.com Audience Award for Best Musical. "It's one of the better movies and that is what I appreciate that the musical is turning on a whole new generation."

Donovan said especially this fall in the run-up to Halloween, it's been a blast playing one of the classic monsters as crowds have been all jacked up for the show.

"The crowds have been fantastic and obviously around Halloween it vibes really well with the audience and we've been getting some really great crowds."

If you go

WHAT: The new Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein as part of the 75th anniversary season of the Marshall Artists Series.

WHERE: Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, 825 4th Ave., Huntington

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10

HOW MUCH: $58, $50 & $45

GET TICKETS: At the Marshall Artists Series box office, located on the east side of the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, or by calling 304-696-3326

ON THE WEB: www.marshallartistsseries.org