November 8, 2007 launched the opening of the Broadway musical Young Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein is an adaptation of the 1974 film by Mel Brooks, starring Gene Wilder. Based on Mary Shelley's horror novel published in 1818, the Gothic story was first made into a science fiction film in 1910. Frankenstein the story has beed reproduced across all kinds of media, including TV, movies, plays and comics. There have been sequels of the movie, including Brooks? Young Frankenstein, a story about the original Dr. Frankenstein's grandson.

Young Frankenstein is a tongue-and-cheek look at the original Dr. Frankentein's grandson attempt at the "family business" after he discovers he's inherited the original Frankenstein castle in Transylvania.

After arriving at the castle, Dr. Frankenstein's grandson begins crazy experiments, among them transplanting a live brain in a cadaver. The experiment works, but the brain in defective. The story then follows the newly-created monster as he rampages throughout the village, but also find himself in many crazy situations.

The majority of the plot of this musical is largely adapted from Mel Brooks? 1974 film with the same name. There are just a few minor variations. The movie depicts the young Dr. Frankenstein as a lecturer at a medical school. In the musical, he is a brain surgeon. Although these are different careers, they do offer him equal qualifications to fulfill the task laid before him.

There is a brief scene in the film version where the monster encounters a young girl. But you won't find this scene in the play. However, the creature still meets the blind hermit. These scenes were similar to scenes in the original Frankenstein movie. And the blind hermit meeting is hilarious.

In the movie, Elizabeth and the monster get married as do Frederick Frankenstein and Inga. In the musical version, although these four do pair up as mentioned above, the play ends before any nuptials take place. The musical has been expanded and has more scenes and longer scenes due to the musical numbers added to the Broadway production. And although the movie was very funny and really a classic in its own right, the Broadway musical adaptation was given even more humor, making it absolutely hilarious.

One of the things that makes it so funny is that Mel Brooks was involved with the musical as much as he was with his 70's movie. Brooks saw how popular The Producers was, he wanted to duplicate its success with Young Frankenstein. Brooks teamed up with Thomas Meehan and together they created the parody of Brooks? earlier film.

Both the musical and movie have received awards and nominations for awards for their performances in this wacky comical adaptation of what was originally a very serious horror film that left no room for comedy.

The Broadway musical production of Young Frankenstein is largely adapted from the hysterical movie version starring Gene Wilder. If you liked the movie, you ought to love this musical.