Curtainup has reviewed several intriguing plays based on the Mary Shelley novel: Neil Bell's Monster and Flying Machine's Frankenstein. Also still vivid in my memory is Howard Brenton's Bloody Poetry, an exquisitely staged factional drama about two immortals of the Romantic Age, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the women they loved (and abused), one of whom was of course, Mary Shelley. Naturally I went to see this musical adaptation filled with curiosity and hope.

Like Simon Saltzman, I was impressed with this musical's imaginative staging. I would also single out the silhouetted figures seen in the upstage area as further examples of lighting designer Thom Weaver's wizadry. Kudos too is in order for the way Michael Clark's terrific projected images expand the sense of time and place.

I would add that the abundance of Frankenstein movies Simon mentioned are still available via Amazon and Netflix, while the Shelley's novel, which has recently been something of a favorite with book clubs, is availabe free on line at Project Gutenberg.

As for those unsightly head mikes, I agree. Since, realistically speaking, you're unlikely to find a musical performance without amplification anywhere except the Metropolitan Opera or at one of Scott Siegel's one-night "unplugged " concerts at Town Hall, I can't help wondering why the director and his technical elves didn't opt for the less in-your-face acoustical buttons which also tend to soften the sound.

Hunter Foster is indeed stuck (at least for another few years) with being cute and adorable so that his casting of Victor is as Simon observed, atypical. However, I had more of a hard time getting used to Steve Blanchard's Creature. Not that I couldn't accept a more human Creature without a lot of monster effects or that I don't find Blanchard a powerful performer. In fact, he's a little too powerful, and, dare I say, charismatic. That bare-chested leather outfit suggests a rock star as much, if not more than a monster.

This is a daring venture: A pop-operatic largely sung-through contemporary musical that may get a marketing boost from the other Frankenstein (Mel Brooks' musical based on his cult film spoof) but is likely to be eclipsed by it. . .staging at a venue considered by some off the beaten path (though it's really a short walk from subway or bus stops and in a booming neighborhood). What's more the show defies superstition with a cast that numbers— you guessed it— 13!.