Mel Brooks' film version of his smash Broadway musical, The Producers , opens in theaters all over the country today. It has been showing in selected cities since the 16th, but now expands to 1,200 theaters with more to come in January.
The musical is based on the 1968 film of the name name starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Since the musical opened on April 19, 2001 it has won 12 Tony awards, become one of the most celebrated musical in American theater, and has made Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick household names to any Broadway fan and box office gold to Broadway producers. Now Mel Brooks is hoping his golden duo will spell success for the film version.
Lane and Broderick are reprising their roles as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom. Also from the musical are Gary Beach as Roger De Bris and Roger Bart (known to audiences today as the stalker pharmacist from Desperate Housewives) as Carmen Ghia. New to the scene are Uma Thurman as Ulla and Will Ferrell as Franz Liebkind. Returning to direct is Susan Stroman.
In The Producers , Max Bialystock (Lane), a struggling, scheming producer, and his accountant, Leo Bloom (Broderick), concoct a plan to embezzle a fortune: raise far more money than you need to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop and then (since no one will expect anything back), Max and Leo can pocket the difference. To do this, they need the ultimate bad play, which they find in the musical Springtime for Hitler, written by the neo-nazi plawright (and pigeon fancier) Franz Liebkind (Ferrell). Their plans come to naught and the duo are taken completely by surprise when their new production is hailed as a toast-of-the-town hit.
You can access media and read the M&C review of the film here . here .
Matthew Broderick, Will Ferrell, and Nathan Lane in The Producers
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