Young Frankenstein (musical)

Young Frankenstein
Original Broadway Cast Album cover
Music	Mel Brooks
Lyrics	Mel Brooks
Book	Mel Brooks Thomas Meehan
Basis	Young Frankenstein by Gene Wilder Mel Brooks
Productions	2007 Seattle 2007 Broadway 2009 Buenos Aires 2009 First US Tour 2011 Second US Tour 2012 Rome 2016 Mexico City 2017 West End
Awards	Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical

Young Frankenstein, officially known as The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein, is a musical with a book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Brooks. It is based on the 1974 comedy film of the same name written by Brooks and Gene Wilder and directed by Brooks, who has described it as his best film. It is a parody of the horror film genre, especially the 1931 Universal Pictures adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and its 1939 sequel, Son of Frankenstein.

After tryouts in Seattle, Washington and four weeks of previews, the musical opened on Broadway on November 8, 2007 to mixed reviews. The Broadway production closed on January 4, 2009 after 30 previews and 484 performances. A U.S. tour started on September 29, 2009 in Providence, Rhode Island.

After the success of his 2001 musical, The Producers, based on Brooks' earlier film of the same name, Brooks decided to create a musical based on another of his successful films. Brooks and Meehan (the same team that crafted The Producers) began work on the project in April 2006. An October 2006 reading of the first draft of the script directed by Susan Stroman (who had directed the earlier musical) featured Brian d'Arcy James as Dr. Frankenstein, Kristin Chenoweth as Elizabeth, Sutton Foster as Inga, Roger Bart as Igor, Marc Kudisch as Inspector Kemp, and Shuler Hensley as the Monster (Hensley had previously played a different version of the character in the 2004 film Van Helsing).