Producers Robert F.X. Sillerman and Mel Brooks have announced that the musical, which will be directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, will begin previews at the Hilton Oct. 11 with an official opening Nov. 8. Roger Bart will head the cast as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein. He will be joined onstage by Megan Mullally (Elizabeth), Sutton Foster (Inga), Shuler Hensley (The Monster), Fred Applegate (Kemp) and Christopher Fitzgerald (Igor).
Song titles, Brooks previously said, will include "We're the Happiest Town in Town," which the villagers sing at the top of the show when they believe Frankenstein is dead, and "There Is Nothing Like the Brain." Other songs include "The Transylvania Mania," "He Vas My Boyfriend" and Irving Berlin's "Putting On the Ritz."
Young Frankenstein, based on Brooks' 1974 film, has a score by Brooks, a book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan and direction and choreography by Stroman — the same team that turned The Producers into Tony gold.
The musical, according to press notes, is described thusly: "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?"
The design team comprises Robin Wagner (set design), William Ivey Long (costume design), Peter Kaczorowski (lighting design) and Jonathan Deans (sound design). Orchestrations will be written by Doug Besterman; Patrick Brady will be the musical director with musical supervision by Glen Kelly. As previously reported, Young Frankenstein will have a pre-Broadway tryout this summer in Seattle. The Brooks-Thomas Meehan musical will play an Aug. 7-Sept. 1 stint at Seattle's Paramount Theatre.
Tickets for the Broadway run at the Hilton Theatre (213 West 42nd Street) will go on sale to the general public July 15. For more information visit YoungFrankensteinTheMusical.com.
