Young Frankenstein Celebrated First Year on Broadway 11/8

Robert F.X. Sillerman and Mel Brooks and the company of The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein, a new musical comedy from the creative team of the 12-time Tony Award winning smash The Producers, recently celebrated their one year anniversary.

The show opened on Broadway November 8th 2007 at the Hilton Theatre (213 W 42nd St).  Previews began October 11th 2007

The production stars Roger Bart (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), Shuler Hensley (The Monster), Beth Leavel (Frau Blucher), Fred Applegate (Inspector Kemp/Hermit), Christopher Fitzgerald (Igor) Michele Ragusa (Elizabeth), and Kelly Sullivan (Inga).

Young Frankenstein features a book by three-time Tony Award winner Mel Brooks and three-time Tony Award winner Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Brooks. Young Frankenstein is directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman.   Musical supervision is by Glen Kelly.

Clive Barnes of the New York Post called Young Frankenstein, "the Broadway musical at its dizziest, glitziest and funniest" while Pat Collins of MY 9 News declared Young Frankenstein "a monster hit." Jeffrey Lyons of WNBC TV said "this riotously funny musical will knock you clear across 42nd Street" and Roger Friedman of Fox News called it simply, "utter genius."

Tickets for Young Frankenstein are available at Ticketmaster.com, at (212) 307-4100 or at the Hilton Theatre box office. Young Frankenstein plays Tuesday evenings at 7pm and Wednesday - Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinee performances on Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 3pm.). All tickets range from $121.50 to $51.50 (including a $1.50 facility fee).  $25 orchestra seats are available at most performances. 

Based on the Oscar-nominated smash hit 1974 film, Young Frankenstein is the wickedly inspired re-imagining of the Mary Shelley classic from the comic genius of Mel Brooks.  When Frederick Frankenstein, an esteemed New York brain surgeon and professor, inherits a castle and laboratory in Transylvania from his grandfather, deranged genius 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? Unfolding in the forbidding Castle Frankenstein and the foggy moors of Transylvania Heights, the show's raucous score includes "The Transylvania Mania," "He Vas My Boyfriend" and the unforgettable treatment of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' On the Ritz."

Released in 1974 to unanimous critical acclaim, the film received two Academy Award nominations, including one for Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder's script, also nominated for a Writer's Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.  Young Frankenstein was also the recipient of the two highest honors accorded films of science fiction: winning The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and The Nebula Award, given by The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, for Best Dramatic Writing. Since its release, the film has become part of the national consciousness: in 2000, it was selected as #13 on AFI's 100 Funniest American Movies of All Time and in 2003, Young Frankenstein was chosen for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

The production team includes three Tony Award winning designers of The Producers: three-time Tony Award winning set designer Robin Wagner, five-time Tony Award winning costume designer William Ivey Long and Tony Award winning lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski.  Jonathan Deans is the sound designer.

For information, visit www.YoungFrankensteinTheMusical.com. 

Photo Credit: Paul Kolnik