Recently the Princeton University Players’ staged, for the first time in over 150 years, Richard Brinsley Peake’s 1823 melodrama Presumption; or the Fate of Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. Newly titled Frankenstein: The Musical, it was performed to full houses in Chancellor Green Rotunda. This all-student production, an outgrowth of Professor Susan Wolfson’s class on “Frankenstein @ 200,” was produced in recognition of the bicentennial anniversary of Mary Shelley’s novel and was funded by a David A. Gardner Grant.
Directed by Evan Gedrich (’18) and Zara Jayant (’19), Frankenstein: The Musical also included an original musical score for the songs and soundtrack by Gedrich. This original score has already been commissioned for two future stagings in 2018, a production in Rome and another in Indiana at the University of Notre Dame.
The cast included Paul Schorin (’19) as Victor Frankenstein, Richard Peng (’20) as Henry Clerval, Manny Ramirez (’20) as Fritz, Natasha Skov (’20) as Elizabeth Frankenstein, Hanhan Chomiczewski (’20) as Agatha DeLacey, Tamia Goodman (’19) as Safie, Sergio Cruz (’18) as Felix DeLacey, Angel Fan (’18) as Madam Ninon, Marshall Schaffer (’20) as Old DeLacey, Kate O’Brien (’19) as Hammerpan, Carl Sun (’20) as Tanskin, Ben Palmer as William Frankenstein, and ---------------- as Monster.