Free Post: Young Frankenstein, The Producers, and other Mel Brooks-y Goodness

Am I the only one who didn't know there was a Young Frankenstein musical?

In case I'm not, there is. What's more, the music and lyrics, as well as the book, were all written by the living legend himself, Mel Brooks. If you don't know who he is...I'm sorry, you do not deserve to call yourself human. Mel Brooks is the ultimate jack-of-all-trades, and the master of several, including theater and film. Well known for both original pieces and satirical parodies, Mel's works include films such as History of the World, Part One (there was never a part two), High Anxiety (a hilarious spoof of multiple Hitchcock films), Spaceballs (a Star Wars satire with an all-star cast), and a silent movie called Silent Movie, with a single spoken line. Many of Mel's movies, including Robin Hood: Men in Tights and History of the World, Part One, include a musical aspect, primarily for comedic relief. However, these short musical numbers clearly involved a great deal of planning, and more than a bit of musical skill on Mel's part. Mel even manages to make a subject as distinctly un-funny as the Spanish Inquisition into something anybody can laugh at. (Mel is Jewish, so that makes it all okay, right?) See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqgZnvfJ9Jg
Part of Mel's brilliance is that he can make things go from macabre to absurdly funny with the greatest of ease, which he shows in his most famous musical, The Producers. Virtually everybody who knows theater knows this show, and many think fondly of it. Few people know it for the Nazi characters and ideas throughout, namely because Mel twists these elements of the plot to his own advantage and gets plenty of laughs from the audience. Take this example, of the song "Springtime for Hitler" and the scene that follows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08akOt2kuo. Once again, Mel's brilliance is that he can make the play-within-the-play switch from Nazi propaganda to a mockery of the Third Reich and all it stood for. Gene Wilder, one of the stars of the original version of The Producers, also starred as Victor Frankenstein's grandson in Young Frankenstein, arguably one of Mel's best movies and one of my personal favorite films of all time. It is, in its loosest sense, based upon the Frankenstein movies we've seen in class. However, it is much different, in the plot, the relationships between the characters, and, of course, the humor. Now that there's a musical version of it, penned by Mel himself, which has apparently been compared to The Producers, this is certainly something that I'd like to see. Maybe there's a version on YouTube...