Mel Brooks’s irresistible monster is alive again

When a film as perfect as Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein exists, you might be forgiven for asking what need is there for a live version?

- Nick Ahad

As the opening night hysterically demonstrated, the possibility for chaos thanks to the ephemeral nature of theatre is reason enough. That ephemerality created events such as a cast member (Simeon Truby as Inspector Kemp) joining the audience to watch the show, a stage manager announcing there would be a pause in the action - leaving Inspector Kemp ad-libbing for all he was worth - then another member of stage management telling the audience, “just wait here and... entertain yourselves”. Someone did eventually remember Truby’s character and he was rescued.