Mel Brooks' latest mega-Broadway musical, Young Frankenstein, is gearing up for an out-of-town production at Seattle's Paramount Theatre, running from August 7th through September 1st, before heading to Broadway's Hilton Theatre, with an opening night scheduled for November 8th, 2007. Previews begin October 11th.
Starring in Young Frankenstein are Roger Bart (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), Megan Mullally (Elizabeth), Sutton Foster (Inga), Shuler Hensley (The Monster), Andrea Martin (Frau Blucher), Fred Applegate (Kemp) and Christopher Fitzgerald (Igor).
"Based on the Oscar-nominated smash-hit 1974 film, Young Frankenstein is the wickedly inspired re-imaging of the Mary Shelley classic from the comic genius of Mel Brooks," state press notes. "When Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, an esteemed New York brain surgeon and professor, inherits a castle and laboratory in Transylvania from his grandfather, deranged genius Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein, he faces a dilemma. Does he continue to run from his family's tortured past or does he stay in Transylvania to carry on his grandfather's mad experiments reanimating the dead, and, in the process, fall in love with his sexy lab assistant Inga?"
In between rehearsals in Seattle, one of the shows stars, Fred Applegate, who will play Inspector Kemp, recently spoke to BroadwayWorld's James Sims about the monster musical and his experiences working with Mel Brooks in The Producers.
What was it like to first work with Mel Brooks?
I did the first National Tour of The Producers, where I did Franz. And Mel was at rehearsals for the tour just about every day, pitching ideas to Susan Stroman and bouncing ideas back and fourth and letting us know what he wanted, which he is very good at doing. Which is fine, because he's Mel Brooks (laughing). I think he liked what I was doing, so it went really well.
And then you were called upon to take over the lead role in London. How did that come about?
The chronology in London was Richard Dreyfuss who was supposed to do the show. Well, he had a back injury years ago, that he thought was going to be okay. It turns out it wasn't, so Nathan Lane came in and opened the show at the last minute, but he could only stay a short time. And then Brad Oscar came in when Nathan left, and he could only stay for a short time. Then when Brad left, they asked me to go over and stay for a year. And I took my wife and youngest son who was still at home and we lived in London for a year… and it was a really amazing thrilling year.
