osprey_archer | November Theater

A couple of recent-ish theater reviews! We went to the Civic Theater production of Young Frankenstein, which surprised me by being a musical, although it probably shouldn’t have as the Mel Brooks movie => musical pipeline is well-established… anyway, this was tons of fun. Catchy songs, great singers, all the actors seemed to be having an amazing time. I think Elizabeth (Frankenstein’s girlfriend who ends up with the Creature) stole the show, but really everyone was fantastic.

Also, we went to see The Snow, which I approached with trepidation, as it was part of the same theatrical season that included Horse Girls.

But I really liked it! In The Snow, a village has been buried in snow, and young Theodore gets a bright idea: why not use a catapult to fly to the other side of the snow to try to find out what’s going on? “But snow doesn’t work that way,” you object. Listen. Snow just works that way for the duration of this show. Don’t worry about it.

This show is very funny, sometimes quite darkly so, as when a doughty band of heroes join Theodore to be catapulted over the snow, only to discover that catapults do still work more or less as expected and if you catapult across the snow without having planned for a soft landing, well… the heroes break Theodore’s fall, is what I’m saying.

There’s also a wonderful bit where one of the three narrators goes rogue. Theodore (who was by the way played by a very short girl) and his one remaining companion (the tallest guy in the play) have gotten trapped in a cellar, and the narrator intones, “The situation was hopeless.”

“What?” objects Theodore. (Theodore’s companion does not speak, but looks aghast.)

“The little one died first.”

“Hold on!” cries one of the other narrators, as the other reassures the audience, gesturing at the rogue narrator, “He’s still in training… only ever narrated tragedies before…”

Then Theodore and companion escape by baking a giant loaf of bread that forces the cellar doors open.

But it’s also a play with a lot of heart, and a completely unsubtle message about how We Can Solve Problems If We Work Together. You might expect the dark humor and the earnestness to work against each other, but somehow the balance is just right so that they work together instead, demonstrating perhaps that we CAN Work Together Despite Differences: the dark humor ensures the earnestness never feels treacly, and the earnestness ensures the dark humor doesn’t feel cynical.