Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein coming to the UK
Mel Brooks’ ‘Young Frankenstein’ stage show is coming to the UK.
The 90-year-old American filmmaker-and-actor has made adjustments to the production that ran on Broadway cutting some songs and dropping some jokes that fell flat on audiences.
The show – based on Brooks’ 1974 film of the same name – will open on August 26, 2017, at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle with Brooks opening the show which will be directed by Susan Stroman,
Speaking to The Daily Mail newspaper, Michael Harrison – who is co-producing the project with Brooks, has confirmed that five songs have been cut and two new ones have been written.
He revealed: "They’ve reworked it as a little vaudeville show."
Brooks previously admitted that the Broadway version wasn’t the "intense, wacky comedy I created for Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn" and he always wanted ‘Young Frankenstein’ to play in the UK.
He said: "The people of your country [UK] will find many more jokes. They like good humor. London is chock-full of out-of-work, brilliant actors…we’ll give some of them a job and they’ll be exceedingly happy – and so will the audience."
Harrison agreed that he would rather the lead roles be filled by people with "real comedy bones, rather than musical theatre bones" and meetings are already taking place to cast the right people.
It will then be down to Stroman, Brooks and Harrison to decide who to pick to portray Frankenstein’s grandson; the creature – who gets to gets to perform a version of Irving Berlin’s ‘Putting On The Ritz’ – and Inge, the assistant.
Fiery Angel production company is holding rehearsals in London next summer, ahead of the final run-throughs, which Brooks will attend in order to finesse his jokes.
Priority tickets are expected to go on sale from November 7 and if it proves to be a success, the show could move to the West End in London.
