 "If you're blue and you don't know where to go to, why don't you go" to the KeyBank Broadway Series opener THE NEW MEL BROOKS MUSICAL YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN at PlayhouseSquare October 13-25, 2009. This is "the Broadway musical at its dizziest, glitziest and funniest," according to the late Clive Barnes of The New York Post. Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press declares, "You can't help having fun," and for this National Tour, Roger Bart and Shuler Hensley reprise their Broadway roles of Doctor Frankenstein and the Monster. "It's alive!"
Awards
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN received the Outer Critic's Circle Best Broadway Musical Award and five Audience Awards by Broadway.com. Nominated for three Tony and eight Drama Desk Awards, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is the perfect blend of the popular 1974 film by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder and the classic Mary Shelley novel published in 1818. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN was created by the Tony Award winning team that brought you The Producers: Mel Brooks, director/choreographer Susan Stroman, set designer Robin Wagner, costume designer William Ivey Long and lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski.
The Hartford Courant exclaims, " With lightning lashes, thunder crashes, fog creeps and electrical impulses zigzagging, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN has come to life! A monster hit!"
"Raising the dead has never been more lively," broadcasts WABC TV.
Syndicated columnist Liz Smith asserts, "Here's a show you can definitely take the kids to and still have a helluva good time too."
Synopsis
The show opens in Transylvania where villagers rejoice at the death of Victor Von Frankenstein, the mad scientist whose creation once endangered their community. They fear that "as long as a Frankenstein walks the earth, their village will never be safe." Meanwhile in New York, scientist Frederick Frankenstein learns of his grandfather's death and journeys to settle the family estate. After meeting a cadre of characters and discovering the journals and secret laboratory of his infamous grandfather, Frederick is enticed to "Join the Family Business" and decides to "re-animate the dead." "When it comes to making monsters, you can't beat the Frankensteins."
Did You Know…
…the original story Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus was written by Mary Shelley when she was 18 years old? One stormy night at a party in Switzerland, Lord Byron challenged his guests to come up with the best ghost story. It was here that Mary Shelley dreamed of the "hideous phantasm of man" that was to become the Monster in the classic Gothic romance Frankenstein.
Before the novel was published and the Monster made famous, Shelley's story was rejected by publisher after publisher, including her husband's (poet Percy Bysshe Shelley) publisher and Lord Byron's.
Finally published in 1818, Frankenstein is considered by many to be the first modern work of science fiction.
For more information on the Broadway Show go to: THE NEW MEL BROOKS MUSICAL YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
Quotations are lyrics from the musical.
Original Broadway Cast. Photo: Paul Kolnik
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