Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein will open in the West End at the Garrick Theatre beginning previews on 28 September 2017 with an official press night on 10 October.
Speaking to The Evening Standard the 90 year old comedian said: “It is a pretty damn good show but I rewrote it because it was too long. It will be a lot better because it is speedy and swift now and I’ve kind of cockneyed it up a little bit. Some of the lyrics were very American but now there are more English references.”
Young Frankenstein will begin a pre-West End season at the Newcastle Theatre Royal in August 2017, ahead of the West End run at the Garrick Theatre.
Based on the Oscar-nominated 1974 film and co-written with Thomas Meehan, this new production follows a run on Broadway which opened on 8 November 2007. Susan Stroman will once again direct the musical, working with Brooks once again following their collaboration on The Producers in both New York and London. The full creative team and cast are to be announced.
"Young Frankenstein, the wickedly inspired re-imagining of the Mary Shelley classic, sees Frederick Frankenstein, an esteemed New York brain surgeon and professor, inherit a castle and laboratory in Transylvania from his deranged genius grandfather, Victor Von Frankenstein. He now 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?"
Young Frankenstein features a book by Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan, music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, set design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by William Ivey Long, musical supervision by Glen Kelly, orchestrations by Dough Besterman, lighting design by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Gareth Owen and musical direction by Andrew Hilton.
This new production of Young Frankenstein is produced by Mel Brooks, Michael Harrison, Fiery Angel and Hani Farsi.
Tickets go on sale Friday 10 February 2017.
