Bart and Martin

Mitzi, Fetus, and I went to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway Thursday night. The show's been so heavily hyped and it has such a great pedigree and it's based on such a classic movie ... so how could it not be a disappointment? I don't want to go into too much detail, but I'll say the conventional line that while YF is entertaining, it's no The Producers: it's not as funny and none of the songs are as memorable. That said, the sets are huge and impressive, as are the special effects, and Andrea Martin, who plays Frau Blücher, and Christopher Fitzgerald, who plays Igor (pronounced "eye-gor," of course), are both really good. And Roger Bart ...

Well, you may recall that I interviewed Roger Bart for Continental's November issue. When we spoke, he suggested I come and say hello when I see the show. So after the curtain fell, and he changed into his street clothes, we got to spend a few minutes with Roger in his undecorated but spacious dressing room. He was really nice, very welcoming, and totally laid back, especially considering that just 15 minutes earlier he was giving a pretty manic performance on stage in front of 1,800 people. Roger told me he thought my article was "very sweet," and he was surprisingly candid about what it's like to perform in such a large theater (the Hilton Theatre is bigger than the St. James, where The Producers was, and yet it's smaller than the theater in Seattle where YF played a tryout run over the summer). Of course, it was totally awkward given that Roger and I really don't know each other, so we didn't overstay our welcome. But it was very cool of Roger to invite me back in the first place.

All the other major cast members — including Megan Mullally and the adorable Sutton Foster — were hanging out in the hallway outside the dressing rooms after the show, so I took the opportunity (with Roger's dresser's permission) to quickly introduce myself to Sutton, who I had interviewed in 2005 for another Continental story. And when she stopped right in front of me, I told Megan she did a nice job, though I don't think she heard me because she and Andrea Martin were a bit preoccupied with something. (Megan had been on Live with Regis and Kelly that morning, and she was giving Reege a hard time because he hadn't come backstage when he saw the show. I just wanted her to know that I didn't make the same mistake.) And it was all pretty cool. Mitzi and I hung out with Idina Menzel in 2004 when we saw Wicked (I also interviewed her for Continental), but that theater wasn't half as nice as the Hilton is. So, all told, a pretty exciting night for us.