The Princeton University Players will present Frankenstein: the Musical May 9th, 10th, 11th, 2017. 

The performance will be staged in our historic building (the former university library), the gorgeous semi-gothic Chancellor Green Rotunda, and will feature a Princeton cast, and an original musical score by Princeton student Evan Gedrich.  They are working with the script of Richard Brinsley Peake’s 1823 play Presumption: or, the Fate of Frankenstein–the first time, in a very long time, that this play has been presented, and in keeping with the historical moment, Evan is using 19th century musical genres. 

There will be a conversation with the creators on the first night, and we may have some light catering for an intermission. So this is an event in musical theater, as well as Frankenstein-bicentennialism, and more generally Romanticism 200 years on.

Mark your calendars. The performance will be free and open to the public.

For out-of-towners, NJ Transit goes right to the Princeton Campus, and Chancellor Green is a pleasant, Spring-evening, 15-minute walk across campus, though there is also a shuttle bus that will take you pretty close.  If you know Princeton, this is right next to Firestone Library and a minute’s walk from Nassau Street.

If this 1823 play-riff on Shelley’s novel is unfamiliar to you, it’s available complete in the Longman Cultural Edition of Frankenstein (with supplements), and also, in an edition beautifully developed by Steve Behrendt, on The Romantic Circles website: https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/peake/index.html