Megan Mullally: My Young Frankenstein Yearbook
As Elizabeth, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein's "adorable, madcap fiancée" in the hit Broadway musical Young Frankenstein, Megan Mullally gets to show off the fabulous singing voice that fans of her Emmy-winning work as Karen Walker on Will & Grace didn't get to hear. Outfitted to the nines by William Ivey Long and flashing a sly smile, Mullally charms audiences and the Monster! as a Mel Brooks-style diva with a passionate side. Mullally's comic gifts are well known by now, both from television and from her witty performances in previous Broadway revivals of Grease and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. As she prepares to give her final performance in Young Frankenstein before returning to California and a possible new starring gig on TV, Mullally agreed to share with Broadway.com readers the highlights of her year-long return to her theatrical roots.
Spending a year on Broadway in Young Frankenstein has been a fantastic experience. I was so excited when this job came along because I love doing musicals so much, and I thought, "What could be more fun than a musical with Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman?" I knew they would put together a great cast and creative team, and they really outdid themselves with this show.
I've done far more theater than television over the years, but I don't think I've ever been in a musical that's this much of a crowd-pleaser! Grease might be the runner-up, but Young Frankenstein outranks even that, maybe because the show has such an epic feel. It also has a childlike quality because of the element of fantasy inherent to the story that every person in the audience can embrace. And, of course, the movie has so many enthusiastic fans to begin with, and those elements are so well-integrated into the stage show. Audiences genuinely love it, which makes it so much fun to be a part of!
Elizabeth is just a great, silly, ridiculous character. I love the fact that she's a dork—she thinks she's awesome, and she would be in the minority. I love the music, too. When I first heard "Please Don't Touch Me" and realized that I get to belt out the word "tits" twice, center stage on Broadway, I almost came unglued. And then later, singing an entire love song about a gigantic penis? It doesn't get a whole lot better than that, people.
One of the other wonderful things about this role is getting to look so glamorous onstage every night I'm a character actress, and I don't usually get to play parts where I swan around in gorgeous gowns designed by William Ivey Long. I told William that I've never felt like I looked this pretty. I also love Elizabeth's saucy red wigs.
People ask me about Mel Brooks, wondering how hands-on he was throughout the rehearsal process. He and writer Tom Meehan were there every single day and would intermittently go off and do rewrites and make adjustments. Mel is the sweetest man. He's like a teddy bear. He says "I love you" to every single person when he's taking his leave of them, for lack of a better term, even people he's only met a couple of times!
When my husband, Nick Offerman, and I first came to New York for me to begin rehearsals, Mel was so kind—he took us to dinner and was so welcoming. Mel is 82 now, and it's fascinating to me that he entered a whole new professional terrain when he was well into his 70s. I really admire him for that, and would hope to have the same amount of chutzpah myself when I'm a little older. He is passionate about musicals, and loves all the greats of the past, like Cole Porter and Gershwin.
Personally speaking, this year has been rewarding, but, of course, not without a lot of good old-fashioned hard work. I've done many long runs in the past, and theater is definitely a discipline—most theater actors I know can't really spring out of bed in the morning, run around the city busy as bees all day and then go do eight shows a week. I can make it to Pilates three or four times a week, do the show, and that's about it. My husband, on the other hand, has managed to do pretty much everything you could think of. He was in the cast of Adding Machine for five weeks, has just built and launched an 18-foot canoe, did a movie with Ryan Gosling and has done tons of improv shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade. He was very cool about agreeing to jump in and spend a year in New York, which just shows that when you go with the flow, things tend to work out!
I know that my last performance is going to be hard, and so emotional, having to say good-bye to everyone I've gotten close to at the Hilton. But Nick and I are ready to get back to our home in Los Angeles—living out of a suitcase gets old after a year or so! I recently did a pilot for a half-hour single-camera series called Bad Mother's Handbook, a comedy about three generations of women. I play the 48-year-old mother of Alicia Silverstone, who plays the 32-year-old mother of a 16-year-old daughter, played by Alia Shawcat from Arrested Development. You've heard of MILF? Well, this is TV's first GILF, if you will. We find out in about a month if it's picked up or not. If so, the show will probably premiere sometime after the first of the year on ABC.
As for the theater, I have offers for a couple of big Broadway things top secret!, depending on what happens with the pilot. They're both a year or two down the road; I need a bit of a break. But I will definitely be back, because I love theater so much: telling a story to an audience in an unbroken arc and feeling the response of that ever-changing, honest audience. It's the only place where an actor can experience that.
I remember every show that I saw as a kid so vividly. Every time I go onstage, I think about the person in the audience who might be seeing a live show for the first time, or the person who might have been saving up all year to buy a ticket to a Broadway show. Those people are probably never going to forget this particular performance, so we onstage can never give anything less than 100 percent!