THE PRODUCERS: YES, THEY DID IT By Peter Filichia
THE PRODUCERS: THE NEW MEL BROOKS MUSICAL experienced that famous theory.
Starting 25 years ago, THE PRODUCERS indeed saw that bad luck comes in threes.
“Wait,” you’re saying, “it was a smash hit, wasn’t it?”
Let’s start before the very beginning. In early 1998, Brooks received yet another offer to turn his 1968 Oscar-winning screenplay into a musical. For years, he’d refused, but this time, the offer came from David Geffen, the movie mogul who’d dallied with Broadway via DREAMGIRLS and CATS. Geffen said he’d produce THE PRODUCERS as a musical if Brooks would write it.
Once again Brooks said no, which is strange, for THE PRODUCERS was a natural for musicalization. The best musicals have Big Characters and Big Events, and few characters are bigger than Max Bialystock, once a Broadway powerhouse now very down on his luck… Franz Liebkind, the passionate leftover-Nazi playwright of SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER: A GAY ROMP WITH ADOLF AND EVA AT BERCHTESGADEN… and Roger De Bris, the flamboyant director-choreographer that Max sought to stage Franz’ show.
True, Leo Bloom isn’t a Big Character, but the budding C.P.A. – in this case, meaning Completely Pusillanimous Accountant – provided The Big Event when noting that producers could make more from a flop than they could from a hit: raise much more money than needed and spend a fraction of it on a terrible show doomed to close at a total loss. No investor would expect any return, so the producer could keep the spoils.
(Brooks was lucky that the general public didn’t know that the Securities and Exchange Commission has safeguards so that this scenario could never happen.)
As his composer-lyricist, Brooks wanted Jerry Herman of HELLO, DOLLY! fame. But when they met, Brooks found that Herman had no intention of collaborating; Herman only wanted to encourage Brooks to write the score himself. Hadn’t Brooks done splendidly in the film with “Springtime for Hitler,” the title song from Bialystock and Bloom’s production, and “Prisoners of Love,” from the show they’re producing in jail? If he could do so well with those two, why couldn’t he do more?
(In fact, Brooks had a leg up on another song: “Haben Sie gehört das Deutsche band?” sung in the film by one of the auditioning would-be Hitlers until Roger curtly dismissed him. For the stage show, Brooks would expand it as the song by which Franz himself was selected to play Hitler.)
Did Herman’s insistence that “You can do it!” lead to Brooks’ writing “We Can Do It,” in which Bialystock seduces straight-arrow Bloom to bend? Whatever the case, Brooks’ first attempt was “Where Did We Go Right?” in which Bialystock and Bloom couldn’t understand why SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER was Broadway’s new smash hit.
Brooks then enlisted Thomas Meehan, whose first-ever libretto for ANNIE had made him a Broadway player. When Brooks’ opening – “Hey, Nebraska!” a parody of OKLAHOMA!’s title song – didn’t please, Meehan suggested starting with first-nighters (and last-nighters) emerging from Bialystock’s FUNNY BOY and panning it as “The Worst Show in Town.” All Max could do was remember when he was once “King of Broadway,” to which Brooks provided music that had a combined Russian, Jewish and Romani feel.
Along the way, Meehan urged that THE PRODUCERS should be “its own thing and not simply a slavish copy of the movie.” Indeed, of all the Broadway musicals adapted from films, THE PRODUCERS may be the least like its source. Credit Brooks, too, for not simply replicating his famous “Springtime for Hitler” number but greatly expanding it so we could see more of this surprise hit.
In addition, Leo would “Wanna Be a Producer.” Franz would play Hitler, not the film’s Lorenzo St. DuBois. When the show succeeded, only Max wound up in jail; Leo escaped to Rio with secretary Ulla, barely seen in the film, but now the possessor of one solo and one duet (and one Tony, thanks to Cady Huffman).
Originally, the jailed Max was to sing “Goodbye to Broadway” until Brooks played it for Stroman who showed no enthusiasm. The thumbs-down led to the hellishly clever “Betrayal” in which Max recounts everything that the audience had seen thus far – including “Intermission!”
Leo and Ulla would return to help Max avoid jail, only to get incarcerated themselves. The bombing of the theater seen in the film was junked, too.
A new wrinkle had Max refusing to allow Leo to wear a fanciful “producer’s hat” until he’d earned it. (Remember, the musical, unlike the original film, was set in 1959, 11 years before Joanne questioned anyone’s still wearing a hat.)
By late 1998, the time came to choose a director and choreographer. For the first job, Mike Ockrent, who’d done so well by ME AND MY GIRL; for choreographer, his wife Susan Stroman, who’d won three Tonys in eight years.
At the time, the couple was working on A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Madison Square Garden, on which Glen Kelly had composed incidental music and had provided dance arrangements. He, too, would join the team as the show’s musical supervisor and arranger.
Then THE PRODUCERS suffered Stroke of Bad Luck #1. Ockrent developed a fatal illness and died. Who could step in and direct?
Stroman, who received the first of what is now a dozen directorial Broadway assignments, and the first of the eight that she’s additionally choreographed.
To follow Zero Mostel, who’d been a superb Max in the film, Nathan Lane was an obvious choice. He’d already won a Tony for another signature Mostel role: Pseudolus in A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM.
An April 9, 2000, reading not only had Lane, but also, as Roger, Gary Beach, who would eventually win a Tony, too (and do the 2005 film as well).
Then, a mere six days before that first reading, THE PRODUCERS endured Stroke of Bad Luck #2: Geffen said that he was too busy with his day job at DreamWorks SKG to produce THE PRODUCERS.
No matter. At the reading, Rocco Landesman, then president of Jujamcyn Theatres, rushed up to Brooks and immediately offered him his St. James Theatre and himself as lead producer.
At intermission.
The show still had a second act to go – where musicals tend to have the most trouble – but after the performers had closed their binders, Landesman was still in.
Next came Stroke of Bad Luck #3. During rehearsals for the Chicago tryout, Ron Orbach, playing Franz, hurt his leg and required an operation. Brad Oscar was pressed into service.
But the third time turned out to be the charm. When Orbach was ready to return, the brass had to admit that Oscar was the better fit.
Chicago audiences that filled all 2,344 seats at the Cadillac Palace for 24 performances loved him and all the rest, starting with an Overture that even contained a good joke. Orchestrator Doug Besterman (who’d get a Tony, too) made sure that “Springtime for Hitler” was saved for the end and introduced in a way that said,”This is the hit song you all know and love, the one you’ve been waiting for.”
Oscar would get luckier still when Brooks allowed him to portray Max three years into the six-year run that had started in April 2001. THE PRODUCERS played 2,502 performances at the St. James Theatre; Landesman kept his promise.
No, this run didn’t quite set the record as the longest for this house; HELLO, DOLLY! still maintains that crown with 2,844 performances. But THE PRODUCERS shattered one record that DOLLY had held for 37 years. Twenty-four years ago this week, DOLLY’s 10 Tonys bowed to THE PRODUCERS’ dozen – including the one Brooks received for Best Score.
As for David Geffen, dumping THE PRODUCERS cost him a good deal of money. Had he stayed with it, he’d now be worth more than the $9.1 billion that he’s estimated to have.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – is now available on Amazon.
