Brian d'Arcy James Signs on to Young Frankenstein Workshop

The New York Post's Michael Riedel reports that Brian D'Arcy James has been cast in the all-star workshop of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks' new Broadway-bound musical version of his beloved horror spoof.  The workshop will be performed this month for prospective backers.

d'Arcy James (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sweet Smell of Success) has been cast in the role of Dr. Frankenstein, while the previously-announced Kristin Chenoweth will play his fiancee Elizabeth (and not Inga, as was originally reported). 

The workshop will mark the first of two projects in which d'Arcy James, Tony-winner Chenoweth (Wicked) and Marc Kudisch (See What I Wanna See), who will play the Police Inspector, will appear together.  In December, the three stars will open in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Apple Tree.

The workshop will also feature the following previously-announced stars: Tony Award-winner Shuler Hensley (Tarzan, Oklahoma!) as Frankenstein's Monster, Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster (The Drowsy Chaperone) as Inga, Roger Bart (The Producers) as Igor, and Cloris Leachman (reprising her film role) as Frau Blucher.  Riedel recently stated that the stars are likely to move to Broadway with the show.

The columnist also previously wrote that the musical "tracks the movie pretty closely. The Irving Berlin estate has given Brooks the rights to 'Puttin' on the Ritz,' so that hilarious dance sequence from the movie has the potential to be a showstopper. Brooks and Meehan have beefed up the relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster, and they've written several parodies of scenes from the classic Boris Karloff film."

Young Frankenstein, inspired by the famed Mary Shelley novel, concerns the skeptical neurosurgeon grandson of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who returns to Frankenstein's castle to find that the legendary monster was more than just a myth.  The comedy, which was directed by Brooks with a screenplay by Brooks and Wilder, starred Wilder, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Leachman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars and more.