It's Alive! Mel Brooks to Reimagine YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN for the West End

The Daily Mail writes that Mel Brooks is reimagining the musical adaptation of his film YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN for the London stage. The musical will be making its West End debut (no word yet on when) with help from original Broadway helmer and THE PRODUCERS colleague Susan Stroman.

"I really didn't do it the kind of justice I should have when I did it on Broadway about eight years ago," Brooks told the Mail. "It was a little too big, and a little too much of a musical comedy, instead of the crazy, black-and-white, intense wacky comedy that I created for Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn."

Brooks will focus on the comedy and acting for the revamp, while Stroman will head up the big musical numbers. Brooks has also written a new song for the monster, who he says is "a very good singer."

Brooks also said he will cast the show with UK's finest, commenting, "If I could get close to the Gene Wilders, the Madeline Kahns, the Peter Boyles and the Marty Feldmans of the movie I'd be happy. In any case, 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."

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, with music & lyrics by Brooks and book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan, originally opened on Broadway in 2007 at the Hilton Theatre, starring Roger Bart (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), Megan Mullally (Elizabeth), Sutton Foster (Inga), Shuler Hensley (The Monster), Andrea Martin (Frau Blucher), Fred Applegate (Inspector Kemp/Hermit) and Christopher Fitzgerald (Igor).

Based on the Oscar-nominated smash hit 1974 film, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is the wickedly inspired re-imagining of the Mary Shelley classic from the comic genius of Mel Brooks. 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? Unfolding in the forbidding Castle Frankenstein and the foggy moors of Transylvania Heights, the show's raucous score includes 'The Transylvania Mania,' 'He Vas My Boyfriend' and the unforgettable treatment of Irving Berlin's 'Puttin' On the Ritz.'

Pictured: Roger Bart and Christopher Fitzgerald in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN on Broadway in 2007. Photo by Paul Kolnik.

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