YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN PLAYBILL MINT OPENING NIGHT READ

WAIT! PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE PAYING. OR WAIT FOR MY EMAIL. DO NOT USE THE PAY NOW LINK YET. IF YOU USE PAYPAL AND PAY FROM A BALANCE IN YOUR ACCOUNT, USE THE PAY NOW LINK. IF YOU ARE PAYING WITH A DEBIT OR CREDIT CARD OR ARE NOT SURE, GO TO WWW.PAYPAL.COM AND ENTER THIS ADDRESS: tedd222@yahoo.com. I ALWAYS SEND WINNING ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR EVERY ITEM. MAILED PAYMENTS ARE FINE.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. The fabulous MEL BROOKS’S much awaited newest production, has opened on Broadway and 42nd Street at the Hilton Theater. Opening Night was Thursday November 8, 2007. This is the first edition of the playbill after the show opened.

Starring a Broadway Who’s Who: ROGER BART (Tony Award Winner; you know him from The Producers, Desperate Housewives, American Gangster,) MEGAN MULLALLY (How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, Will & Grace,) SUTTON FOSTER (Tony Award Winner; Little Women, Thoroughly Modern Millie,) SHULER HENSLEY Tony Award Winner; Tarzan, Oklahoma, Les Miserables,) ANDREA MARTIN (Tony Award Winner; Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma,) FRED APPLEGATE (The Producers, The Sound of Music,) and CHRISTOPHER FITZGERALD (Wicked, Amour.)

Directed by Susan Stroman, Written by Mel Brooks and THOMAS MEEHAN, Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks. Managing Producer Richard Frankel, Laura Green. Much of this production includes the involvement of the good folks who created The Producers.

All my playbills are "priced right."

SHIPPING IS $3.31 TO THE USA AND CANADA AND $5.86 EVERYWHERE ELSE. The new postal rates now charge more for thickness and/or (but not both) envelope size thus adding at least .44 to each playbill mailing. PAYPAL will be OK after we communicate.

Based on the story and screenplay by GENE WILDER and Mel Brooks; released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1974.

Broadway Shows make a great party theme and playbills make for the perfect table decoration.

WHAT IS AN OPENING NIGHT PLAYBILL?A discussion. Perhaps for purists only. Thanks to two eBayers who provided input on this subject, one who works at the Hilton Theater. Happy to hear others’ thoughts.

A playbill from the opening night has a banner printed over the title page with the date of the opening night. Playbills on opening night may, though rarely, have an “official” opening night sticker on the cover. There was no such sticker added to the Young Frankenstein playbill. The Young Frankenstein opening night playbill was still being given out by the Hilton Theater during the entire first week. Yes, it is the playbill that was used at the opening night. No, it may or may not have been given out at the opening night performance. Thus, is a playbill with the banner given out on a day other than November 8 still the opening night playbill? You decide.

Subsequent playbills no longer had the date banner over the title page. Instead, the date of the show’s opening is noted in smaller print above the listing for the show staff. This is standard for all shows. On Friday night, November 16th, the Hilton Theater still had both playbills in circulation. Thus, 8 days after opening night, some audience members were given the opening night playbill.

Playbill.com sells opening night playbills that have a sticker. They can be found in the Playbill Store and are called “Limited Edition Official Opening Night Playbill.” They also sell one for Young Frankenstein. So my questions now become: Is any playbill with a sticker for a show that never actually used stickers at the theater an “official” anything? Is any playbill with a sticker that has never seen a theater truly an opening night playbill? Mary Poppins, I was told, is one show that paid Playbill to put stickers on the playbills for opening night. It also had the opening night title page banner. Did Playbill.com kosherize those playbills by walking them through the theater lobby for a few seconds on opening night? All for you to decide.

In a similar vein, if you have a mint playbill signed by an actor, you have now rendered that playbill no longer mint. Someone marked on it even if it is an autograph. Thus a playbill with a sticker is also no longer a mint playbill. Right?

Pablo Picasso had some works that he did not sign. A reputable dealer will know. However some dealers forged his signature on the work to reassure buyers that it was “a Picasso,” but rendering his work other than the way he intended. And so it goes.