Mel Brook's YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN to Play at the Orpheum Theater, 3/29 - 4/3

The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein, a musical comedy from the creative team of the 12-time Tony®-Award winning smash The Producers, is coming to Omaha, Tuesday, March 29 through Sunday, April 3, 2011. The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein will be presented at the Orpheum Theater by Omaha Performing Arts and Broadway Across America.

Tickets for The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein are now on sale starting at $25. They can be purchased at the Ticket Omaha Box Office in the Holland Performing Arts Center, 13th and Douglas streets, Omaha, Neb.; online at TicketOmaha.com; or by calling 402-345-0606. For group sales call 402-661-8516 or toll-free at 866-434- 8587.

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.

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 falling 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."

Young Frankenstein opened on Broadway November 8, 2007 at the Hilton Theatre and began its national our September, 2009. It was named Best Broadway Musical in 2008 by the Outer Critics Circle Award and won five 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."

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 musical 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.

For more information go to www.ticketomaha.com, www.omahaperformingarts.org or www.YoungFrankensteinTheMusical.com. 

ABOUT Mel Brooks 

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, co-wrote, 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.

ABOUT OMAHA PERFORMING ARTS
Omaha Performing Arts is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing world-class performances to the Omaha metropolitan area. Omaha Performing Arts' commitment to the arts extends into its own series, Omaha Performing Arts Presents, as well as education and community involvement programs that help ensure the arts have a far-reaching impact. In partnership with Broadway Across America, Omaha Performing Arts also brings the finest in touring Broadway productions to Omaha, Core to its mission, Omaha Performing Arts manages two landmark venues, the Holland Performing Arts Center and the Orpheum Theater - the former, which includes the acoustically acclaimed Kiewit Concert Hall and Scott Recital Hall and the latter, which includes Slosburg Hall, a proscenium theater. Omaha Performing Arts also provides comprehensive ticketing services for cultural and performing arts within the region through Ticket Omaha.
Omaha Performing Arts' performances are supported in part by the Nebraska Arts Council, Nebraska Cultural Endowment, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Omaha and the Douglas County Visitor Improvement Fund. For more information onOmaha Performing Arts visit www.OmahaPerformingArts.org.

ABOUT Broadway Across America
Broadway Across America (Producer), part of the Key Brand Entertainment family of companies which includes Broadway.com, is 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 musicals and plays across 40 North American cities. Broadway.com is the premier theater website for news, exclusive content and ticket sales.
Under the supervision of Beth Williams (COO and Head of Production), Broadway Across America is also dedicated to the development and production of new and diverse theatre. Current Broadway productions include How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette, Million Dollar Quartet, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Jerusalem, Memphis, La Cage Aux Folles, the West End production of Million Dollar Quartet and the touring production of Dreamworks' Madagascar Live! For more information, please visit
BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com

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