PAGING Dr. Frankenstein, paging Dr. Frankenstein.
A workshop production of the new musical “Young Frankenstein” is only weeks away, and Mel Brooks is still looking for a star to play the title role.
Production sources say his first choice was Hugh Jackman, who’s back in New York after touring Australia for a month with a hugely successful concert version of “The Boy From Oz.”
But Jackman’s schedule is jam-packed with movies, and even if he could carve out a few weeks for the workshop in November, he wouldn’t be available to do the Broadway show for at least a year.
(As things stand, “Young Frankenstein” will open in Chicago in the summer and then Broadway a year from now.)
So Brooks and his director, Susan Stroman, have been auditioning other actors to re-create the part Gene Wilder played in the 1974 movie.
Just a few days ago, they met with former “Saturday Night Live” star Jimmy Fallon. The audition went well, but Brooks and Stroman are also talking to television star Tom Cavanagh (“Ed,” “Love Monkey”).
The rest of the workshop cast is set, and it’s top-notch: Kristin Chenoweth is playing Inga, Sutton Foster has the Madeline Kahn role, Shuler Hensley is the Monster, Marc Kudisch is the police inspector, Roger Bart is Igor, and Cloris Leachman is reprising her role as Frau Blucher. All are expected to be in the Broadway production.
Brooks is keeping the show, which he wrote with Tom Meehan, under lock and key; the actors have been told not to expect a script until the day before the workshop begins.
But I hear the musical tracks the movie pretty closely. The Irving Berlin estate has given Brooks the rights to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” so that hilarious dance sequence from the movie has the potential to be a showstopper.
Brooks and Meehan have beefed up the relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster, and they’ve written several parodies of scenes from the classic Boris Karloff film.
Stroman has told friends she thinks the script is in even better shape than “The Producers” was when she first read it.
Quick hits:
* The Roundabout Theatre Company is trying to put together a revival of Harold Pinter‘s “Old Times” starring Alan Rickman, Lindsey Duncan and Laura Linney – although sorting out the stars’ schedules is proving a challenge.
* If “High Fidelity” doesn’t run long at the Imperial Theatre – and the reviews in Boston were not all that encouraging – look for the acclaimed British play “Coram Boy” to slip into the theater in time for the Tony Awards.
* Natasha Richardson has been offered the leading role in Charles Busch‘s upcoming new comedy, “Our Leading Lady.” Presented by the Manhattan Theater Club, the play is about 19th-century actress Laura Keane, who was performing at Ford’s Theater the night Lincoln was shot.