How was adapting “Young Frankenstein” to the Broadway stage?
Was it different from “The Producers”? Not really—it had an existing story. The story of “Young Frankenstein” started with Mary Shelley, and then in 1931, James Whale made a movie for Universal called “Frankenstein.” When I made my movie, I tried to stay with the look and feel and texture of the black-and-white James Whale movie. Yeah, it terrified me and stayed with me. I think I made a movie comedy of it, in a strange way, to exorcise it from my soul so I wouldn’t worry about Frankenstein climbing up the fire escape and coming into my bedroom. We lived in Brooklyn, and my mother used to say, “It’s a big tenement. Why would he choose our apartment? We’re on the top floor, he doesn’t have to climb—he can get somebody on the first floor.” Tell us a little about growing up. My father died when I was only 2?. I had three older brothers—my brother Irving was only 12, Lenny was 8 and Bernie was 6. There was no father, no income. Aunt Sadie threw some money into the house to keep us going, a
