“He finished the song, looked down at me and said, ‘Hello, I’m Mel Brooks.’ And I thought, no matter what happens with this show, it’s going to be a great adventure.” -Susan Stroman
The idea for a musical version of The Producers began in 1998, when music and film impresario David Geffen began to hound Brooks about turning Brooks’ 1968 Oscar®-winning film into a stage musical. A great fan of the theater since his Uncle Joe took him to see Cole Porter’s Anything Goes at the age of nine, Brooks had always had the desire to be a Broadway composer / lyricist. In fact, he had written numerous songs for his own films including “I’m Tired,” “Doing the French Mistake” and the title song for Blazing Saddles, not to mention “Springtime for Hitler” and “Prisoners of Love” for The Producers.
At Geffen’s suggestion, Brooks met with Broadway composer Jerry Herman (La Cage aux Folles, Mame, Hello, Dolly) to discuss the project. When they got together, Herman was sure he knew of a better candidate to write the original music for The Producers and began to play some of the writer’s songs. That composer was Brooks.
So Brooks took the suggestion, tackled the songs and asked his old friend and collaborator Meehan (Spaceballs, To Be or Not To Be) to co-write the book. Meehan was a Tony-winning writer (Annie) and eagerly welcomed the opportunity to co-write a new musical.
When asked to meet with Brooks about the project, five-time Tony Award-winning director / choreographer Susan Stroman recalls, “I got a call saying Mel Brooks wants to meet you. Tonight.” So the choreographer of such popular Broadway shows as Crazy for You, Oklahoma and Contact quickly stopped a rehearsal and went home. There was a knock at the door.
“I knew all of Mel’s movies, and I knew all of his lines and I knew everything he’d done…so I was very excited,” she recalls.
“I opened the door and there he was, this legend. But instead of speaking, he launched into full voice singing, “That Face” which opens Act Two of The Producers.
“He kept singing…he walked past me, all the way down the hallway and jumped on my sofa. He finished the song, looked down at me and said, ‘Hello, I’m Mel Brooks.’ And I thought, no matter what happens with this show, it’s going to be a great adventure,” she laughs. “And in fact, it has been one of the greatest times of my life.”
Twelve Tony Awards, two national touring companies and three international productions later, Brooks asked Stroman, “If we were to make this show into a movie, what movie would you want to make it like?” “When she answered, ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’” Brooks recalls, “I told her ‘you’ve got the job!’ Because Singin’ in the Rain to me is the classic of what we call a head-to-toe musical—where you see the dancers, not just quick cuts to faces or eyes or ears, but you see a beautiful body in motion.”
“When it came to directing advice,” continues Brooks, “I told Susan you must say ‘action’ and then you say ‘cut.’ If you say ‘cut’ first and then ‘action,’ there’ll be no film. I had to explain the rudiments. No, I’m kidding,” he jokes. “I knew immediately that she would take to this. She has an incredible visual gift.” “Her transition to movies seems just effortless,” observes Matthew Broderick, who has worked with Stroman since the first read-through of the musical in 2000.
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