Marcus Center For The Performing Arts Presents YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN 11/2-11/7

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, will begin performances in Milwaukee on November 2 and run through November 7. This Milwaukee engagement is presented by Broadway Across America-Milwaukee and the Marcus Center as part of the Time Warner Cable Broadway at the Marcus Center Series. Tickets will go on sale at NOON on Sunday, September 19.

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.

Young Frankenstein was named Best Broadway Musical 2008 by the Outer Critics Circle Award and won 5 Broadway.com Audience Awards, including Favorite New Broadway Musical.

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."

Young Frankenstein played its pre-Broadway engagement at Seattle's Paramount Theatre August 7th - September 1st, 2007.
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. Two other Producers alumni complete the music
department: Tony-award winning orchestrator Doug Besterman and musical director Patrick Brady.

Biographies

Mel Brooks (Book, Composer & Lyricist, Producer). Director, producer, writer and actor, Mel Brooks is the recipient of three 2001 Tony Awards (Best Score, Best Book of a Musical, Best Musical) and two Grammy Awards (Best Musical Show Album and Best Long Form Music Video) for The Producers. Mr. Brooks began his distinguished career during television's Golden Age as a writer for Sid Caesar on "Your Show of Shows" in 1951. In 1955 and in 1957, Brooks received Emmy Award nominations (with others) for best comedy writing for "Caesar's Hour," and in 1956 he was nominated (with others) for best writing for a variety or situation comedy. In 1952, Brooks wrote sketches for Leonard Sillman's Broadway smash-hit revue, New Faces of 1952, and in 1957, together with Joe Darion, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Shinbone Alley, which starred Eartha Kitt. In 1962, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical All-American, starring Ray Bolger. In the 60s, Brooks teamed up with Carl Reiner to write and perform "The 2000 Year Old Man" albums, which became immediate bestsellers. In 1960 and 1961, Brooks and Reiner received Grammy Award nominations for the best spoken word comedy for "2000 Years" and for best comedy performance for "2000 and One Years,"respectively. In 1997, Brooks and Reiner teamed up again for "The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000." Both a book and CD were released, the CD winning a Grammy Award in 1998 for the best spoken word album: comedy. Brooks wrote and narrated The Critic, a short satire on avant-garde art films, which received the Academy Award for best animated short subject in 1964. In 1965, he teamed up with Buck Henry and created "Get Smart," the long-running television show starring Don Adams as Agent 86. Brooks, along with others, received an Emmy Award for outstanding writing achievement in a comedy-variety in 1967 for "The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special." In 1968, he wrote and directed his first feature film, The Producers,starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, which earned him an Academy Award for the best original screenplay written directly for the screen. He then went on to create a remarkable string of hit comedies: 1970, wrote, directed and acted in The Twelve Chairs; 1974, co-wrote, directed and acted in Blazing Saddles, and was nominated, along with John Morris, for best title song, "Blazing Saddles;" 1974, co-wrote and directed Young Frankenstein; 1976, co-wrote, directed and starred in Silent Movie; 1977, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in High Anxiety; 1981, wrote, directed, produced and starred in History of the World, Part I; 1983, produced and starred in To Be or Not to Be; 1987, cowrote, directed, produced and starred in the hit sci-fi spoof, Spaceballs; 1991, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Life Stinks; 1993, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Robin Hood: Men in Tights; 1995, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Dracula: Dead and Loving It; 2005, co-wrote and produced The Producers, the film version of his Tony award winning 2001 Broadway musical and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, "There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway." For three successive seasons, Brooks won the Emmy Award for his role as Uncle Phil on the hit comedy show, "Mad About You." His visionary film company, Brooksfilms Limited, founded in 1980, has produced some of America's most distinguished films, among them: David Lynch's The Elephant Man, David Cronenberg's The Fly, Frances, Richard Benjamin's My Favorite Year and 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft.

Susan Stroman (Director /Choreographer). Ms. Stroman directed and choreographed The Producers, winner of a record-making 12 Tony Awards including Best Direction and Best Choreography. She co-created, directed and choreographed the groundbreaking musical Contact for Lincoln Center Theater, winning the 2000 Tony Award for Best Choreography, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics' Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards and a 2003 Emmy Award for Live at Lincoln Center. Other Broadway credits include The Frogs, Oklahoma! (Drama Desk, Outer Critics' Circle, Olivier Awards), Thou Shalt Not, The Music Man (Outer Critics' Circle Award), Steel Pier, Big, Showboat (Tony, Outer Critics' Circle Awards), Picnic, and Crazy for You (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics' Circle, Olivier Awards). Off-Broadway productions include And The World Goes 'Round (Outer Critics' Circle Award) and Flora the Red Menace. For 10 years she choreographed Madison Square Garden's annual spectacular event A Christmas Carol (Outer Critics' Circle Award), directed by Mike Ockrent. For New York City Opera: A Little Night Music, 110 in the Shade, and Don Giovanni. Ms. Stroman created Double Feature, a full-length ballet for New York City Ballet featuring the music of Irving Berlin and Walter Donaldson. She has created the ballets Blossom Got Kissed for New York City Ballet's 50th Anniversary season and But Not For Me for the Martha Graham Company. Her choreography received an Emmy nomination for the HBO presentation Liza - Stepping Out at Radio City Music Hall, starring Liza Minnelli. Other TV credits include co-conceiver/choreographer for PBS's Sondheim - a Celebration at Carnegie Hall and An Evening with the Boston Pops - a Tribute to Leonard Bernstein. She received the American Choreography Award for her work in Columbia Pictures feature film Center Stage. Ms. Stroman directed and choreographed The Producers: The Movie Musical, nominated for 4 Golden Globes. She is the recipient of the George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theater, and the winner of a record four Astaire Awards. Coming in 2008 will be the world premiere of a new piece for Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as a new musical for Lincoln Center with collaborator John Weidman, entitled Happiness.

Thomas Meehan (Book) won the 2003 Tony Award for co-writing the book for Hairspray after having won the 2001 Tony Award for co-writing the book of The Producers. Earlier, in 1977, he received his first Tony Award for writing the book of Annie, which was his first Broadway show, and he has since written the books for the musicals I Remember Mama, Ain't Broadway Grand,
Annie Warbucks, Bombay Dreams and the Broadway-bound Cry-Baby. In addition, he is a long-time contributor of humor pieces, including Yma Dream, to The New Yorker; an Emmy Award-winning writer of television comedy; and a collaborator on a number of screenplays, including Mel Brooks' Spaceballs, To Be or Not to Be, and the film version of The Producers. He is also the co-author of the libretto of "1984," an opera composed by Lorin Maazel and based on George Orwell's classic novel of the same name, which had its world premiere in the spring at London's Royal Opera House and will be performed next year at La Scala, in Milan. Mr. Meehan is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild.
For further information, visit YoungFrankensteinTheMusical.com.

Young Frankenstein will play November 2 through 7 at the Marcus Center. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m. Prices start at $25 and vary depending on performance, seat location, and date of purchase. Tickets go on sale Sunday, September 19 at Noon at the Marcus Center Box Office, 929 N Water Street, Downtown Milwaukee, by calling the box office at (414) 273-7206, online at www.MarcusCenter.org, online at Ticketmaster.com or call (800) 982-2787. Group orders of 10 or more maybe placed by calling 414-273-7121 ext.210. This Milwaukee engagement of Young Frankenstein is presented by Broadway Across America- Milwaukee and the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Time Warner Cable Broadway at the Marcus Center.

ABOUT THE MARCUS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts is owned and partially funded by Milwaukee County. The Marcus Center has been the premier entertainment destination for Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 1969. It provides the setting for outstanding cultural experiences, where the arts come to life for current and future generations. Located in the heart of the Downtown Theater District, the Marcus Center is a community facility that offers live performance of opera, ballet, children's theater, symphony and first-class national touring productions. For more information on Broadway shows presented as part of Time Warner Cable Broadway at the Marcus Center, visit the Marcus Center website at www.MarcusCenter.org or go to www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com.

ABOUT Broadway Across America
Broadway Across America: Owned and operated by British theatre producer John Gore (CEO) and entertainment industry veteran Thomas B. McGrath (Chairman), Broadway Across America presents first-class touring Broadway musicals and plays, family productions and other live events throughout a network of 43 North American cities. Broadway Across America is also dedicated to the development and production of new and diverse live theatre for productions on Broadway, across America and throughout the world. Broadway Across America most recently produced Irving Berlin's WHITE CHRISTMAS on Broadway, while current and upcoming productions include WEST SIDE STORY, BLITHE SPIRIT, MINSKY'S, and the DeafWest production of PIPPIN. Broadway tours include DORA THE EXPLORER, FROST/NIXON, SPAMALOT, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

 

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