Young Frankenstein

Venue: the St. James Theatre

April 19, 2001 - April 22, 2007

Mel did it again with Young Frankenstein, and by did it I mean he made another musical out of one of his old movies. He picked another goodie, though. This one I haven't seen but I can't wait for the national tour!

I've got some clips related to the show in it's many incarnations below:

Clip One - Megan Mullally and Shuler Hensley sing their duet for the Tony Award

Ceremony.

Clip Two - The cast of Young Frankenstein sing 'Transylvania Mania' on the Today

Show on Halloween '07.

Clip Three - Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor and Roger Bart as Dr. Frederick

Frankenstein performing 'Together Again' live on The Today Show.

Clip Four - This is a montage promo for Young Frankenstein.

Clip Five - This is an episode of Alive on Broadway featuring Young Frankenstein. My

apologies for not being able to merge these clips into one file.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

From Wikipedia:

Young Frankenstein, officially known as The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein, is a musical with a book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Brooks. It is based on the 1974 comedy film of the same name written by Brooks and Gene Wilder and directed by Brooks, who has described it as his best film. It is a parody of the horror film genre, especially the 1931 Universal Pictures adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and its 1939 sequel, Son of Frankenstein.

After tryouts in Seattle, Washington and four weeks of previews, the musical opened on Broadway on November 8, 2007 to mixed reviews.

The Broadway production closed on January 4, 2009 after 30 previews and 484 performances. A U.S. touring production is scheduled to start in September 2009.

After the tremendous success of his 2001 musical, The Producers, based on Brooks' earlier film of the same name, it was not surprising that Brooks would musicalize another of his successful films. Brooks and Meehan (the same team that crafted The Producers) began work on the project in April 2006. An October 2006 reading of the first draft of the script directed by Susan Stroman (who had directed the earlier musical) featured Brian d'Arcy James as Dr. Frankenstein, Kristin Chenoweth as Elizabeth, Sutton Foster as Inga, Roger Bart as Igor, Marc Kudisch as Inspector Kemp, and Shuler Hensley as the Monster. Cloris Leachman, reprising her film role as Frau Blücher, also attended the table read, and at the time it was widely reported she would be offered the role of Blücher for the stage show. However, gossip maven Liz Smith reported in her January 12, 2007 New York Post column that Leachman was sent a letter informing her she would not be considered for the Broadway production because the producers wanted to keep the film and stage properties separate (and also because of Brooks's concerns over Leachman's ability to perform the character consistently at her age). However, due to Leachman's success on Dancing with the Stars Brooks reportedly asked her to reprise her role as Frau Blucher after Beth Leavel left the production.

Young Frankenstein at Paramount Theater, Seattle WA August 2007

If you have any information to contribute about this play, or maybe photos or videos, please contact me.