The Musical
The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics by Brooks and music by Brooks and Glen Kelly. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by overselling interests in a Broadway flop. Complications arise when the show unexpectedly turns out to be successful. The humor of the show is accessible to a wide range of audiences, and draws on ridiculous accents, caricatures of homosexuals and Nazis, and many show business in-jokes.
The original production opened on Broadway on April 19, 2001, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and ran for 2,502 performances, winning a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards. It spawned a successful London production, running for three years, national tours, many productions internationally and a 2005 film version.
Background
David Geffen persuaded Mel Brooks to turn his movie into a stage musical. When Brooks met with Jerry Herman to discuss their working together, Herman declined, telling Brooks that he should do the job himself, as he was a good songwriter. Brooks then asked Thomas Meehan to join him in writing the book for the stage. Brooks persuaded Mike Ockrent and his wife Susan Stroman to join the creative team as director and choreographer. After Ockrent's death on December 2, 1999, Stroman agreed to continue as both director and choreographer. The last addition to the creative team was Glen Kelly as the musical arranger and supervisor.
Plot summary
Act I
New York, 1959. It's the opening of a new Max Bialystock play called "Funny Boy", a musical version of Hamlet ("Opening Night"). Everyone ends up hating it and the show closes after one performance. Max, who was once called the King of Broadway, sings to a crowd of down-and-outs of his past achievements and that he will return to form ("King of Broadway").
The next day, Leo Bloom, a mousy accountant from the firm of Whitehall and Marks, comes to Max's office to audit his books. A bit later, one of Max's "investors" arrives, however, and Max tells Leo to go wait in the bathroom until she leaves. The investor is a little old lady who constantly repeats the phrase "Hold Me, Touch Me". She starts playing a sex game with Max ("the virgin milkmaid and the well-hung stableboy"). After a few minutes, Max interrupts the game and persuades her to give him a check to be invested in his next play (which he hasn't yet produced and calls "Cash"). Leo comes out of the bathroom and reveals his lifelong dream to Max: he's always wanted to be a Broadway producer. After a serious panic attack when Max touches his blue blanket, Leo calms down enough to give Max the news that he has found an accounting error in his books: Max raised $100,000 for "Funny Boy", but the play only cost $98,000. There's $2,000 unaccounted for. Max begs Leo to cook the books. "Look at me," he pleads: once the King of Broadway, now reduced to romancing little old ladies to back him and wearing cardboard belts. Leo reluctantly agrees and returns to Max's books. After some calculations, he realizes that "under the right circumstances, a producer could actually make more money with a flop than he can with a hit." Max sits up, an idea forming in his unscrupulous head.
Leo explains. "The IRS isn't interested in the show that flopped. You could've raised a million dollars, put on your $100,000 flop, and kept the rest!" Max proposes the ultimate scheme:
Step 1: We find the worst play ever written. Step 2: We hire the worst director in town. Step 3: We raise two million dollars...One for me, one for you. There's a lot of little old ladies out there! Step 4: We hire the worst actors in New York and open on Broadway and before you can say Step 5, we close on Broadway, take our two million, and go to Rio.
However, Leo refuses to help Max with his scheme and returns to Whitehall and Marks, even after much pleading ("We Can Do It"). When he arrives at work six minutes late, his horrid boss, Mr. Marks, reminds him that he is a nobody, a P.A. (Public Accountant), whereas Marks is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant): a rank a "miserable little worm like could never hope to achieve." While he and his miserable co-workers slave over accounts, Leo daydreams of becoming a Broadway producer ("I Wanna Be a Producer"). He realizes that his job is terrible, quits his job, defies Mr. Marks, and returns to Max ("We Can Do It - Reprise").
The next day, they look for the worst play ever written without much luck. Finally, Max finds the sure-fire flop: Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden written by Franz Liebkind. They go to the playwright's home in Greenwich Village to get the rights to the play. Ex-Nazi Franz is on the roof of his tenement with his pigeons: Otto, Bertha, Heinz, Heidi, Wolfgang, and Adolf (named after the Fuhrer himself), reminiscing about the grand old days( "In Old Bavaria"). Leo and Max listen to Franz rave; they get him to sign their contract by joining him in singing Adolf Hitler's favourite tune ("Der Guten Tag Hop Clop"), and by reciting the Siegfried Oath, promising never to dishonor "the spirit and the memory of Adolf Elizabeth Hitler."
Leo and Max then go to the townhouse of Roger De Bris, the worst director in New York and a flamboyant homosexual to boot. At first, Roger and his "common law-assistant" Carmen Ghia decline the offer to direct because of the serious subject matter. Shows should be happier, blithe, bonny... gay, Roger avers ("Keep It Gay"). Finally, after much persuading (and Tony-name dropping), Roger agrees to do it, but only if the ending is changed so the Germans end up winning World War II. A celebratory conga line ensues. Leo and Max return to the office to meet a Swedish bombshell who wants to audition for their next play. Her name is Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yansen Tallen Hallen Svaden Swanson. That's her first name; Ulla for short. She auditions for them ("When You've Got It, Flaunt It"). Bialystock and Bloom are floored, to say the least. They hire her to be their secretary/receptionist. Max then goes off to raise two million dollars for "Springtime for Hitler" by calling on all the little old ladies in New York ("Along Came Bialy"). Finally, after seducing every willing little old lady in the greater Broadway area, Max has raised the two million ("Act I Finale").
Act II
Leo and Ulla are left alone for a little while in Max's redecorated office (redecorated by Ulla during the intermission; See Photo right) and they start to fall in love ("That Face"). Leo, who has always decided to stay away from any relationship, breaks his own rule and starts to go out with Ulla. Max walks in on them at the end of the song and sings the reprise when he sees the perfect form of Ulla's covered behind ("That Face (Reprise)").
The auditions for finding a terrible Hitler go unsuccessfully. One terrible actor after another is shooed away by Roger: Jack Lepidus, who starts singing "A Wand'ring Minstrel I" from The Mikado too high; and Donald Dinsmore, who danced to The Little Wooden Boy before he gets a chance to sing. Finally, Franz is outraged by Jason Green's rendition of "Haben Sie Gehört Das Deutsche Band" and makes the statement that the Fuhrer wasn't a "mousy little mama's boy"; the Fuhrer was butch . He performs his own jazzy version of the song and he is given the part by Max. Opening night for "Springtime for Hitler" arrives ("It's Bad Luck to Say Good Luck on Opening Night") and everyone is ready, until Franz falls down the stairs and breaks his leg. Roger is the only one who knows the part of Hitler and he rushes to the dressing room to get ready.
The curtain rises, and Max and Leo watch their failure unfold ("Springtime for Hitler"). Unfortunately, Roger's performance is so campy and outrageous, the audience mistakes it for satire and the show becomes the talk of the town.
Back at the office, Max and Leo are near-suicidal ("Where Did We Go Right?"). Roger and Carmen come to congratulate the Producers of the new smash, only to find them fighting over the accounting books in a way that looks like anal sex. Just then, Franz bursts in, outraged by Roger's portrayal of his beloved Führer and firing a pistol at them. He claims that they all made a fool out of Hitler, though Roger and Carmen respond that he "didn't need their help. " Max convinces Franz to shoot the actors because they were the ones who made fun of Hitler, but Leo objects to it, saying that actors are human beings, not animals. The police hear the commotion and arrive, taking away Franz (who breaks his other leg after trying to escape), Max and the accounting books. However, Leo hides and Ulla finds him and convinces him to take the two million dollars and run off to Rio as Max had planned.
In prison, Max receives a postcard from Leo and feels "Betrayed" and, in his big eleven o'clock number, recounts the whole show (including intermission). At his trial Max is found "incredibly guilty", but then Leo and Ulla arrive and tell the judge that Max is a good man who would never hurt anyone ("'Til Him"). The judge is touched by this and decides not to separate the two, instead sending both (plus Franz) to Sing Sing prison for 5 years. In prison, they write a new musical entitled "Prisoners of Love" which goes to Broadway ("Prisoners of Love") (starring the stars of Springtime, Roger, and
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