Frankenstein Cereal

VS

Round one. FIGHT!

Being a Cereal audience member is great when your boyfriend is in the play and can comp your tickets every night, but when you’re not lucky enough to be dating the cast, it does tend to add up. I am a cereal audience member—someone who likes to see shows multiple times over the course of their run. One of the best parts of a production I watching it evolve, seeing what the cast does different, what each actor discovers each night.

This hobby, or perhaps addiction leads to my dilemma of the day. Does my desire to see how a show has evolved outweigh my desire to be frugal and not by a new version of it’s soundtrack? Do I purchase the world premiere soundtrack recording of the new Frankenstein musical when I have a perfectly good copy of the workshop edition?

I’m not talking about Mel Brook’s disappointing attempt to capitalize on the success of The Producers, but a musical based on the book by Mary Shelly. I have the workshop edition of the soundtrack, bought when the show was but a fledgling. I was on a Shelly bender at the time, and one of my favorite actors, Shuler Hensley was playing the creature.

Hensley wowed as usual, and the actor playing Victor had a beautiful tenor. The score was synthesized, but had the potential to be quite epic if ever played with live instruments. The lyrics were lacking or sing song in some places, but there were quite a few lines that were just damned powerful.

You are the Children of Hell,
Your children as well!

Its true potential lay in the fact that it captured the spirit and tragedy of Shelly’s novel, full of pathos, of characters you both hate and love, fear and sympathize with. I am a huge fan of Shelly’s Frankenstein, and have never seen an adaptation that did the story justice in the way that this musical did.

Now, the show is playing off Broadway in New York. There have been some changes in the cast. Hensley left to play the creature in Brooks’ production. I’ve heard a few clips of the new actor, and he’s not half bad, but between the demo CD and Van Helsing, Hensley’s become more synonymous with the creature for me than Boris Karloff.

The clips I’ve listened to clearly prove that the lyrics have been seriously reworked since the demo, and the change is clearly for the better. The CD also includes a live orchestra, which is a vast improvement. The vocals are also better in many places (even if they are Hensley free). Henry Clerval no longer sounds like a chick. There are also quite a few new songs. The creature gets more air time as well as Elizabeth.

Of course all of this has been gleaned from the clips provided on the show’s official website and amazon.com. And part of me—the frugal part—says that one CD aught to be enough. But I am a cereal audience. I want to see how the show has evolved. So tonight, I shall wrestle with my wallet. It’ll most likely lose.