June 28th, 2008 - "YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN: ALIVE ON BROADWAY" at FOX Television - “New York City FOX television station WNYW will re-air the hour-long special "Young Frankenstein: Alive on Broadway" on June 29.

Hosted by Emmy-winning reporter Pat Collins, the presentation will include new interviews with the cast of Mel Brooks' YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, including reactions from Andrea Martin and Christopher Fitzgerald about their recent Tony nominations.

"Young Frankenstein: Alive on Broadway" features interviews with the musical's creator Mel Brooks, as well as Gene Wilder, co-creator and star of the original film. Collins also goes behind the scenes to reveal how Shuler Hensley is transformed into the musical's tap-dancing monster prior to each performance.

In addition to interviews with Young Frankenstein director and choreographer Susan Stroman, Collins speaks to Roger Bart and Megan Mullally, who portray Dr. Frankenstein and his fiancé Elizabeth, respectively.

The 60-minute program also features interviews from the opening night of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, including Billy Crystal, Goldie Hawn, Martin Short, Walter Cronkite, Joan Rivers and Rosie O'Donnell.

"Young Frankenstein: Alive on Broadway" will air at 5 PM on FOX 5 WNYW for New York metropolitan viewers.

Young Frankenstein is playing at The Hilton Theatre on Broadway. For tickets and information visit youngfrankensteinthemusical.com.

in Playbill On-Line by Adam Hetrick

CONTACT features a book by John Weidman and Susan Stroman and music by various artists, including Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible," Dean Martin's "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You," Dion"s "Runaround Sue," the Beach Boys' "Do You Want to Dance?" and "Sing Sing Sing" from Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.

After a successful run at the Mizti Newhouse Theater, CONTACT opened on Broadway at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater March 30, 2000, where it played 1,010 performances before closing Sept. 1, 2002. In addition to its Tony for Best Musical, the production also picked up awards for Boyd Gaines (Best Featured Actor in a Musical), Karen Ziemba (Best Featured Actress in a Musical) and Susan Stroman (Best Choreographer). Contact is divided into three parts: the first set in eighteenth century France, the second in a 1950's New York restaurant patronized by the Mafia, and the third in modern-day New York where a successful but lonely advertising executive makes contact with his emotions when he falls for a girl in a yellow dress at a dance club.

In a recent statement North Shore artistic director and executive producer Barry Ivan said, "This season pays tribute to the legendary Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman and we felt that CONTACT would be a great way to honor her and be an entertaining departure from the standard definition of a musical. The show is wonderfully unique in that it tells three separate stories of romance and escapism primarily through Stroman’s clever and witty choreography. This will be a rare treat for NSMT audiences."

The North Shore creative team also includes Howard C. Jones (scenic designer), Andrew Ostrowski (lighting designer), John A. Stone (sound designer), Gerard Kelly (wig and hair designer) and Jason Quinn (production stage manager).

Tickets, priced $40-$77, are available by calling (978) 232-7200 or by visiting visiting www.nsmt.org.

The North Shore Music Theatre is located at 62 Dunham Road in Beverly, MA. North Shore is recommending CONTACT for "theatregoers 16 and over."

n Playbill On-Line by Andrew Gans

May 16th, 2008 - YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Wins Outer Critics Circle Award for Oustanding New Broadway Musical - "Winners of the 58th annual Outer Critics Circle Awards were announced May 12.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and XANADU were both named Outstanding New Broadway Musical, and Adding Machine and Next to Normal — both seen Off-Broadway — were awarded the prize for Outstanding New Score.

The Outer Critics Circle Awards are decided upon by a group of writers "covering New York theatre for out-of town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway."

Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba and stage and screen star Sandy Duncan announced the Outer Critics Circle nominations April 21. The new Mel Brooks musical YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN had earned the most nominations, ten.

Winners will be celebrated with an awards dinner May 22 at Sardi's Restaurant."

in Playbill On-Line by Andrew Gans

March 1st, 2008 - SUSAN STROMAN Helms Reading of HAPPINESS - “Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz, Horatio Sanz and Jennifer Laura Thompson will take part in a May reading of a new musical penned by GREY GRADENS co-creators, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie.

Lincoln Center Theater confirmed that Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Sans ("SNL") and Thompson (Wicked) are scheduled to appear in the reading, which will be helmed by Tony-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman.

John Weidman (Assassins, Bounce, Contact) has penned the book for the new musical that was previously titled HAPPINESS. In an earlier interview with Playbill Radio's Robert Viagas, Stroman commented that the new work would incorporate dance but not be primarily dance-driven like her Tony-winning CONTACT.

The currently untitled work centers on a group of subway riders who find themselves stranded on a train together. Stroman stated that the production is eyeing a full production this fall.”

in Playbill On-Line by Adam Hetrick and Andrew Gans

April 26th, 2008 - Harold Prince and SUSAN STROMAN Oversee Reading of the New Musical PARADISE FOUND - “PARADISE FOUND, a new musical by librettist Richard Nelson and lyricist Ellen Fitzhugh — with music by Tony Award-winning orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and late 19th-century waltz composer Johann Strauss II — has been explored in rehearsals in New York City in recent days leading to a private industry presentation April 25.

The reading has been overseen by co-directors Harold Prince and Susan Stroman. It picks up where the team left off in January, when a reading was canceled due to Prince (The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music) taking ill.

Darius de Haas (Marie Christine, Rent, Carousel) plays The Eunuch at

the center of Paradise Found, which was inspired by Joseph Roth's Vienna-set novel, "The Tale of the 1002nd Night."

Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles is producing the reading with an eye toward a future production.

Music director Charles Prince, the respected musician son of Tony-winning director Prince, is the project's musical director. Composer Tunick is widely known for orchestrating many Broadway musicals, including the works of Stephen Sondheim. His current Broadway orchestrating credit is “A Catered Affair”.

Strauss (1825-1899) is the Austrian composer known for his sensuous waltzes, including "The Blue Danube."

Tony-winning director and choreographer Stroman (The Producers, Contact, Young Frankenstein) last collaborated with Prince on the Broadway revival of “Show Boat”.

The cast includes Tony winner Shuler Hensley (Young Frankenstein, Tarzan, Oklahoma!), Tony winner John Cullum (of Prince's “On the 20th Century”), long-time “Phantom of the Opera” star George Lee Andrews, “Show Boat” veteran and “Mary Poppins” mother Rebecca Luker, “Phantom” Tony winner Judy Kaye, Kate Baldwin (White Christmas, Wonderful Town), “LoveMusik” veteran Graham Rowat, Daniel Marcus (Urinetown), Ann Arvia (Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins), Lisa Datz (The Full Monty, The Boys From Syracuse), Laura Dekkers (The Woman in White), Eric Michael Gillett (The Frogs, Sweet Smell of Success), Chris Hoch (Die Mommie Die!, Beauty and the Beast), Jim Poulos (Rent, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and Rachel Ulanet (LoveMusik).

Nelson is the respected American playwright of Some Americans Abroad who won a Tony Award for his libretto to James Joyce's The Dead. His Conversations in Tusculum was produced by The Public Theater earlier this year.

Fitzhugh penned lyrics to the Prince-directed musical, "Grind", and the musical "Paper Moon".

Publishers Weekly characterizes the Roth novel this way: "A master fabulist and linguistic architect, Roth (1884-1939) examines the cultural crucible of fin de siecle Vienna through the eyes of his protagonist, the Persian monarch Shah-in-Shah. Seen this way, Roth's Vienna is, as the novelist Hermann Kesten put it, 'an exotic old-Austria, a kind of vanished, fairy-tale Wild East.' Things do get wild when the Shah, whose harem back at home is 365 wives strong, decides to sample 'the amorous arts of the Occident.' His unwitting encounter with a Viennese prostitute sets in motion the novel's Byzantine plot contortions and introduces a cast of eclectic characters. Roth's antic playfulness is, however, tempered by a serious consideration of the customs of the times. The Shah's visit upsets Viennese society at every level as it destabilizes social hierarchies and calls character into question. Roth decorates his well-wrought plot with lush description as he waxes philosophical on destiny and responsibility. Originally published in 1939 by the Dutch firm of De Gemeenschap, this historical novel proves its staying power, despite the tests of time and translation."

in Playbill On-Line by Kenneth Jones

March 16th, 2008 - Trivia About SUSAN STROMAN in the 70s - Imagine my surprise one when, a few weeks ago, I received an email from a guy who worked with Susan back in the early 70s. He, not only sent me a few pictures of those times, but also had some trivia regarding her. As you can imagine I asked him permission to use the pictures and the piece of information he gave me, so here it is both with the blessing of Richard Mullin.

Back in 1974, Richard worked with Susan in the dinner theater production of WEST SIDE STORY

The cast spent a lot of time together over four months – we rehearsed during December 1973 and early January 1974. On production nights, we’d go through the dinner theater line and have our evening meal together before the show and after the show go out for a nightcap or party before heading home. That continued until the show closed in March”.

On the Summer of 74, Susan and her friend Debbie Bouma visited California, where they attended a taping of Johnny Carson’s TONIGHT SHOW, although in that day Carson was replaced by Joey Bishop. They “sat in the front row wearing their tap shoes. He spotted them, actually asked them their names and they danced a couple of steps and got some applause. It was broadcast nationally!” I would love to see this someday.

March 1st, 2008 - World Premiere Commercial for YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN - The Broadway.com website has the world premiere of the new television commercial for the Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman musical YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

I gave it a look and I only I can see the entire musical in a near future. To enjoy the commercial click here and visit the Broadway.com site.

by Jorge

January 13th, 2008 - SUSAN STROMAN'S Next Project: HAPPINESS - “Multiple Tony Award winner Susan Stroman, currently represented on Broadway with the new Mel Brooks musical YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, has found her latest stage project.

In an interview for Playbill Radio, Stroman said that she and librettist John Weidman — her collaborator on the Tony-winning musical CONTACT — are currently working on a piece for Lincoln Center Theater entitled HAPPINESS. The GREY GARDENS team — composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie — is penning the show's score.

"We'll have a reading in the spring, and hopefully the production will happen in the fall," Stroman told Playbill Radio's Robert Viagas. When asked whether HAPPINESS is a dance show, Stroman said, "It has dance in it, but it's not primarily a dance show like CONTACT." "

in Playbill On-Line by Andrew Gans / photo © Aubrey Reuben

January 13th, 2008 - YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN: a Small Webpage - I haven’t seen Mel Brooks/Susan Stroman’s YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN yet, but even so as a big fan of Stroman’s work I decided to build a small webpage dedicated to that musical, with a few images and excerpts from some reviews. To visit it you just have to click here.

by Jorge

November 17th, 2007 - YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN at YouTube - I know, there’s nothing like seeing a musical live on stage. Nevertheless, for those of you who, like me, live to far away from Broadway and are dying to have a chance to see YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, it seems that YouTube may be the next best thing.

While checking for scenes of Mel Broks/Susan Stroman new musical at YouTube I discovered a few videos that gave me great pleasure to see. So, just to wet your appetite for the real thing go to YouTube and see the following videos, all you have to do is click in the titles: Act 2-Clips – Montage – "Surprise" – "Please Don’t Touch Me" - "Together Again" - "Transylvania Mania" - "Roll in Ze Hay".

You can also check the numbers that were broadcast by NBC at YouTube. Here are the links to the numbers, you just have to click on the titles: “Together Again”, “Transylvania Mania”, “Roll in Ze Hay”.

by Jorge