Frankly, Brooks is excited about his newest venture

NEW YORK CITY — Mel Brooks is a salesman. Right now, he's warbling over the telephone — direct from Los Angeles — giving a preview of a love song from "Young Frankenstein," his new Broadway musical that begins previews next month and opens in November.

"Let's forget about thinking — thinking's never smart," he talk-sings in a gravel-flecked voice that would never be mistaken for melodious. "Flush your brain right down the drain. Listen to your heart.

"I think it's the best song I have ever written," Brooks says with disarming confidence. "I'm just crazy about it."

But then the man is bursting with enthusiasm about the whole show — the cast, crew and, if he were asked, most likely the ushers, too, at the Hilton Theatre where the show officially opens Nov. 8. Previews begin Oct. 11

Brooks was in California following a summer Seattle tryout of the musical, which is based on his funny 1974 film comedy. You know the plot — it's the story of Frederick Frankenstein, who inherits the Transylvania digs of his famous grandfather, the man who created the monster.

Roger Bart appears as the young Frankenstein, and he gets some pretty strong support: Megan Mullally (of TV's "Will & Grace") playing Elizabeth (the Madeline Kahn role in the film), Andrea Martin as Frau Blucher, Sutton Foster as Inga, Fred Applegate as Kemp, Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor and Shuler Hensley as the monster.

Bart is a veteran of Brooks' mega-smash, "The Producers," where he played not only Carmen Ghia but, later in the run, the leading role of Leo Bloom. But then Brooks has a few more "Producers" alums on board — director-choreographer Susan Stroman and co-book writer Thomas Meehan, among others.

The Seattle tryout wasn't like the old days when frantic writers, frantically rewriting, were holed up in hotel rooms in Philadelphia or Boston.

"We did that in our own apartments — Tom and Stro and I and Glen Kelly, our musical supervisor. We did all the work we would have done out of town by being the audience ourselves.

"I gotta tell you a secret. When Tom and I write the jokes, if we don't hold our bellies and laugh, it doesn't go into the script. We never say, 'That'll be good. Or this will kill 'em. Or that works.' The acid test is: We've got to laugh ourselves."

So, what did Brooks learn from the Seattle run?