The rise and fall of Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks has gone through many stages of his career, from TV genius to film schlockmeister to mastermind behind one of the great musicals of the past decade. In the two former fields, he faced an embarrassing decline, and, sadly, it's looking like the same is now happening to Mel Brooks the Tony-winner. After the overwhelmingly negative response to the Young Frankenstein musical, Brooks is increasingly sounding like a bumbling old man with his own reasoning behind the critical thrashing: that critics are mad about the $450 premier seats, and in making this claim he passes the buck to co-producer Robert F.X. Sillerman.

"This was set by the producer who was too ambitious and thought the extra money might go to our backers and cast rather than concierges, scalpers and ticket brokers," Mel said.

Michael Riedel of the New York Post, never one to pass on a verbal beating, lets Mel Brooks have it for blaming Sillerman for a problem that is clearly Brooks' fault, and sadly, I'm inclined to agree.

To be fair, I haven't seen Young Frankenstein (nor do I have any real desire to do so), but I wasn't surprised when it failed. The Producers succeeded mainly because on its unflinching love for Broadway tradition. Young Frankenstein was Mel Brooks best movie for similar reasons, in that it was a love letter to classic film like The Producers was a love letter to Broadway. Frankly, I don't know that many people who had high hopes for Young Frankenstein.

But to remind us all of Mel Brooks' better musical days, I humbly submit this clip: