Frankenstein: A New Musical [Soundtrack]

I saw this show last fall during the stagehands' strike on Broadway. I so wanted to like this show. It seemed like a poor Off-Broadway underdog playing at the same time the big Broadway show Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein premiered. I'd been attracted by the amazing credentials and voices of the performers involved. This show is in what I'd call the Les Miz-style. Mostly sung, with the story hurtling forward with hardly a chance for a breath. And everything is so very, very earnest. You're made to feel a little guilty for just wanting a good, suspenseful, eerie monster story. Maybe with a little tragic romance. Instead it takes itself so very serious with its important issues of God and man and creation and, well, I just couldn't care because ultimately I didn't really care about any of the characters moving around an extremely uninteresting set with it's PowerPoint projections that told us where we were in what year. And it often seemed that everything truly dramatic and suspenseful happened off stage or behind a scrim.

Oh. And the music. The music didn't make me care too much about the characters either. Every "song" seemed more or less like the one preceding it. Except they didn't really seem so much like songs -- you could never really feel the shape of any tunes to grab onto, or that allowed any of the performers to shape into something enjoyable. I was so thankful when Hunter Foster finally got to sing "The Coming of the Dawn" almost at the very end. It was really the first time I felt he was able to just sing something that felt like a song and not just directionless declamatory drama. Amazingly, it seemed to be a real song. A nice power ballad that had a melody that stuck with me. It was the only thing that made a favorable impression on me. Well, I did buy a nice t-shirt in the lobby. I liked it. Still have it. It fits me well.

Check Frankenstein out for yourself though. If you enjoyed Les Miserables and some of the other attempts a bringing these old or gothic tales to musical theater (Jane Eyre, Lestat, Jekyll & Hyde and Phantom of the Opera come to mind) then you might find something to like in this.

I had the pleasure of seeing this show Off-Broadway at 37Arts. I knew some of the score from the Workshop production (the cast recording of which is hard to come by these days) prior to seeing the show, but didn't know what to expect with this production. Little did I know that I would fall head-over-heels for the cast, the music, and the design of this show.

Of course, this new recording (featuring the entire cast from 37Arts minus Eric Michael Gillett - who is replaced by the splendid Richard White) doesn't SHOW anyone the design or staging of the show...but it manages to capture 74 minutes of the 95 minute show perfectly!

The cast includes Hunter Foster (URINETOWN, THE PRODUCERS), Steve Blanchard (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), and Christiane Noll (JEKYLL & HYDE). I won't go into detail about these wonderful performers, but I will say that each gives a truly unique and powerful performance. Foster's "Birth to My Creation" and "The Coming of the Dawn" are more than worth the price of the CD (or download). Blanchard's savage "The Waking Nightmare" and haunting "These Hands" show a tortured Creature worthy of pity. Noll's beautiful voice and presence deserve a standing ovation, especially on "Dear Victor" and "The Workings of the Heart." Also a standout is Jim Stanek (LESTAT), particularly in "The Modern Prometheus."

The orchestrations are not the "biggest," but that lends to the show's intimacy. The recording is perfectly engineered and produced.

If anyone were to make the perfect cast recording of a fantastic musical, this would be it!

I have read many times here that the concept album of Frankenstein, the musical was better than this "Finished" album. As a result I took the chance and shelled out the thirty five dollars it cost me to buy a used copy of the concept album. I was... disappointed.

First, let me say, I love this musical. I love the music. I love the plot. It's very true to Mary Shelley's novel except for a few small details here and there (such as Victor actually creating the mate and then destroying her afterward instead of destroying her before bringing her to life).

My biggest qualms are mostly aesthetic. I think they have the creature make too many groans and animal noises that are unnecessary. Also I would prefer it if in the play they had the creature look more like Luke Goss's version of the Frankenstein creation from the 2004 Hallmark Frankenstein mini-series. That was the most accurate portrayal of the monster I had ever seen. And instead of trying to look like the Robert de Niro version I would have preferred if they follows the novel and had him look the same way Luke Goss looked in the 2004 mini-series as it was book accurate.

Now to compare this to the concept album. I feel those saying that the concept album was better are clearly not paying much attention to the lyrics. There is a verse on the finished album that is "Life ever lasting! Reanimation! The knowledge to design the finest human in all creation! Body bone and mind!' but in the concept album that verse (which is in two songs) is "The purest plasma coursing freely..." and that's the version of the lyrics on most lyric sites. The purest plasma? Really? I winced when I heard that version. Also the concept album makes Victor a son of a baron, has his experiment in October instead of November, has him as an established doctor already and not just a student, and has other deviations from the novel, a great deal more than the finished album does. I really like the part of "Birth of my creation" and "The Proposition" that has "Life everlasting! Reanimation!" it's a very up tempo portion of the song. And "Purest Plasma coursing freely" just doesn't cut it for me. I'm glad that part was changed for the finished album. Also Victor is a lot more sympathetic in the finished version. In the concept album he claims the hanged man's body BEFORE he's even dead. Talk about cold. He's simply not that callous in the finished album.

Vocally the creature sounds better in the concept album (less needless grunts and voice exaggerations) but this one has the better lyrics.

I saw a few complaints that this musical sounds like something by Frank Wildhorn as reason that it is bad but I happen to like Frank Wildhorn. I love Scarlet Pimpernel, Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula, the musical. And yes, this musical does have Frank Wildhorn qualities to it. So if you don't like Frank Wildhorn you should probably stay clear of this.

If you want to hear a musical version of Frankenstein that actually follows Mary Shelley's novel and has some catchy songs (like Modern Prometheus) than I strongly recommend this album. It also is a good companion for listening to while reading the novel or if you're a fan of the Frankenstein mini-series by Hallmark. Granted in the actual play this album came from the creature doesn't look very good. So let's hope in future productions of this play they go the Luke Goss route.