Young Frankenstein to close on 4 Jan

The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein will play its final performance on Broadway on 4 Jan 2009. when the show closes it will have played 30 previews and 484 regular performances.

Young Frankenstein opened at the Hilton Theatre on 8 Nov 2007, following previews from 11 Oct and was selling tickets through to 21 Jun 2009.

"Once again it has been a joy to work with such tremendous talents, Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman. Young Frankenstein's magnificent creative team and cast are second to none. As anyone who has seen this stunning production can attest, it is a spectacular and extravagant musical. In these uncertain economic times, my partners and I have decided to end our run on Broadway and focus our efforts on the first national tour, which will launch in September 2009," said Young Frankenstein's lead producer, Robert F.X. Sillerman.

The show opened to mixed, but mostly poor reviews: "If "YF" screams anything, it's shtick!" (NY Theatre Guide); "Leaves you with a monster-size headache." (NY Times); "Isn't the joyous celebration one hoped for." (NY Daily News); "The Broadway musical at its dizziest, glitziest and funniest." (NY Post); "The only thing in stitches is the creature's face." (NewsDay); "Not a great musical, nor even a particularly good one." (Star-Ledger); "It's alive � but just barely." (USA Today); "Bloated, robotic, astonishingly unfunny behemoth has been cobbled together from spare parts" (Time Out NY); "Shrill, misbegotten, deeply cynical enterprise." (NY Sun)

Based on the Oscar-nominated 1974 film, Young Frankenstein tells the story of Frederick Frankenstein, a young neurosurgeon who inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. In the castle he finds a funny hunchback called Igor, a pretty lab assistant named Inga and the old housekeeper, frau Blucher. Young Frankenstein does not believe in the work of his grandfather, but when he discovers the book where the mad doctor described his reanimation experiment, he suddenly changes his mind...

Unfolding in the forbidding Castle Frankenstein and the foggy moors of Transylvania Heights, the show's score includes �We�re the Happiest Town in Town,� "There is Nothing Like The Brain," "The Transylvania Mania," "He Vas My Boyfriend" and the unforgettable treatment of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' On the Ritz."

The musical currently features Roger Bart (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), Michele Ragusa (Elizabeth), Kelly Sullivan (Inga), Shuler Hensley (The Monster), Fred Applegate (Kemp), Beth Leavel (Frau Blucher) and ***Christopher Fitzgerald (Igor)
***Cory English assumes the role of Igor from 25 Nov.

Like Mel Brook's 12 times Tony Award winning show 'The Producers,' Young Frankenstein features music & lyrics by Mel Brooks, book by Mel Brooks & Tom Meehan, and is directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman.

The production also features the same creative team as 'The producers': Robin Wagner(Set Design), William Ivey Long (Costumes) and Peter Kaczorowski (lighting).