LEGENDARY filmmaker and comedian Mel Brooks made a surprise appearance as his new musical Young Frankenstein was premiered exclusively to a North-East audience ahead of its West End opening.

The Hollywood veteran, who became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s with hits such as The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie and Spaceballs, joined a curtain call at Newcastle's Theatre Royal last night (Saturday).

The film Young Frankenstein, written with Gene Wilder, ranked 13th in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of the last century – earning more than £60 million worldwide and receiving two Academy Award nominations

Audiences in the region are able to see the monster musical comedy and its all-star cast first before anyone else for two weeks only.

Comedy hero Ross Noble of Cramlington, Northumberland, and screen stars Lesley Joseph and Hadley Fraser lead the cast of the new all-singing all-dancing extravaganza, which is based on the Oscar-nominated smash hit movie of the same name.

The show opens at London’s Garrick Theatre in late September.

Summer Strallen also stars in the show. Sister of Zizi (Mary Poppins) and niece of Bonnie Langford, audiences will likewise recognize her from Live Theatre’s Flying into Daylight and Paradise Moscow at the Theatre Royal in 2009.

Dianne Pilkington (Wicked), and Patrick Clancy (The Producers, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) are also featuring.

Hadley Fraser plays the title role of Dr Frederick Frankenstein, grandson of the infamous Dr Victor Frankenstein, and immortalised by Gene Wilder in the 1974 movie.

Young Frankenstein, the wickedly inspired re-imagining of the Mary Shelley classic, sees Frederick Frankenstein, an esteemed New York brain surgeon and professor, inherit a castle and laboratory in Transylvania from his deranged genius grandfather, Victor Von Frankenstein.

He now faces a dilemma - does he continue to run from his family’s tortured past or does he stay in Transylvania to carry on his grandfather’s mad experiments re-animating the dead and, in the process, fall in love with his sexy lab assistant Inga?

Brooks will once again collaborate with Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman for this all-singing all-dancing new production, bringing his and Gene Wilder’s classic movie to life on stage.

Tickets from £19.50 from from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 or book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk.