Jung Frankenstein–A Neo-Transylvanian Musical
By Jack Helbig
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Today few comic actors in Chicago have the mental and cultural resources of a Mike Nichols or an Anthony Holland or an Elaine May, and it shows–even in how they choose to work. Pure long-form improv is easier than a sketch comedy show. Likewise a formless one-act with no story is easier to improvise than a one-act with a story and strong characters. And certainly it’s much easier to close your eyes and ears and hold your nose and imagine that whatever dreck you put onstage is good than it is to actually create something worth watching. This laziness appears in all aspects of the improv scene–in lackluster sets that try to get by on “charm” alone, in flaccid stories that go nowhere and have nothing to say, in bland Second City-style revues created by people who obviously do nothing but watch TV and hang out with other improvisers.
At first this new way of creating shows seemed clever–especially the way the Soloway sisters did it. The folks at the Annoyance put a lot of work into The Real Live Brady Bunch, re-creating the look and feel of those dippy Brady Bunch episodes. And in a subtle, wry way the Annoyance performers critiqued the Bradys even as they pretended to praise them.
It might not have been a bad thing, however, if this Posin’ at th’ Bar production had really been a Real Live Brady Bunch-style appropriation of the movie. But unfortunately, as Baar and Posen explained in a Tribune feature, they couldn’t get the rights to the Brooks-Wilder screenplay. So they’ve hung their own mostly lame jokes on the structure of Young Frankenstein. One wonders how far into the process Baar and Posen discovered they couldn’t just take the film and put it onstage the way the folks at Jedi! had done (though eventually that show was shut down for performing copyrighted material without permission).
It’s just a flash in the darkness, however, a brief glimpse of what Baar and Posen might have accomplished if they hadn’t taken the easy road–after all, anyone can improvise, anyone can act, anyone can create theater.
