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'The Producers' hits big screen with momentum
By Jeff Korbelik / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 - 06:09:05 pm CST

It’s a good bet that funny man Mel Brooks will be laughing all the way to the bank. Again. On Christmas, the movie version of his Broadway smash “The Producers” opens nationwide with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprising their stage roles.

For those unfamiliar with the Tony Award-winning musical, “The Producers” stars Lane as Max Bialystock, a down on his luck producer, who, with his mousy accountant Leo Bloom (Broderick), discover they can make more money with a flop than a hit.

Gauging by the audience’s reaction at a sneak preview Tuesday night in Omaha, “The Producers” should do well at the box office — much better than Brooks’ 1968 movie.

That’s what’s so weird about “The Producers.”

The original movie, which starred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, tanked — exactly what Bialystock and Bloom had hoped would happen with their musical, “Springtime for Hitler.”

Yes, the movie was critically lauded. It won Brooks an Academy Award for best screenplay and netted the up and coming Wilder a best supporting actor nomination.

Yet the masses ignored it. It was fly paper with no stick 'um.

Even today, it’s hard to find a copy of the movie. Many video stores don’t carry it. I found an old VHS copy with a faded cover at Audio Visual’s north Lincoln location.

“It just never quite caught on,” said Charles Henry Bethea, executive director of the Lied Center for Performing Arts, which will host the touring show of “The Producers” next season. “The Nazi thread may have been a little too uncomfortable.”

It had been, after all, only 20-plus years since the atrocities of the second World War.

“It’s timing more than anything else,” Bethea said.

Creating stage musicals from movies isn’t anything new. Recent endeavors include “Footloose,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “Titanic,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Hairspray” and “The Color Purple.”

According to Alisa Belflower, University of Nebraska-Lincoln musical theater professor, historians have found that Broadway producers like to gamble on movies — even bad ones.

“It’s incredibly expensive to produce a musical, especially in New York and most especially on Broadway in New York,” she said. “(Producers) want an audience that’s already guaranteed. Even if the movie is horrible, fans of that movie will come see the musical.”

“The Producers” didn’t have a fan base, but it had three things going for it: Brooks, Lane and Broderick.

In the 30-plus years since his movie “The Producers” came out, Brooks has built his resume and credibility with a string of hits — “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Spaceballs.”

So he had a lot going for him when he decided to revisit “The Producers” with a stage version, which previewed in March 2001 and opened on Broadway the next month.

“There was a lot of buzz about it before it opened,” remembered Belflower. “Mel Brooks is pretty good at generating buzz.”

Brooks took his movie, which clocked in at an efficient 88 minutes, and beefed it up with more story and, of course, more songs for the musical. Two of the original movie’s three numbers — “Springtime for Hitler” and “Prisoners of Love” — made the cut.

Added to the musical was a love story between Leo and Ula, who was nothing more than window dressing in the movie.

Axed from the movie was the beatnik (played to perfection by Dick Shawn), who won the part of Hitler in the musical. The beatnik character worked in the 1960s flower-power era, but was dated for 2001. Brooks opted for a flamboyantly gay Hitler for the musical.

Of course, the biggest key to the musical’s success was casting Lane and Broderick.

Lane was big in New York, having wowed audiences as Nathan Detroit in “Guys and Dolls” and winning a Tony Award for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” playing the role that Mostel made famous.

Broderick was big everywhere else, with several successful big-screen credits (“Glory,” “The Freshman,” “Election”).

“The Producers” was a Broadway smash and paved the way for a new genre of musicals such as last year’s Tony-winning “Spamalot,” which also was based on a movie (“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”).

“(‘Spamalot’ director) Michael Nichols openly admitted that America needs more silly musicals,” Belflower said. “It was ‘The Producers’ that gave him that idea.”

Based on its Broadway success, it’s no surprise Brooks brought “The Producers” back to the big screen, especially after seeing other movie musicals — “Moulin Rouge” and the Oscar-winning “Chicago” — do well at the box office.

“I don’t think (Brooks) would ever admit (that’s why he did it),” Belflower said. “One has to suspect it.”

Directed by choreographer Susan Stroman, the new “Producers” movie mirrors the Broadway show.

The differences are in the magnitude of each scene. For example, 50-some old ladies dance with walkers in Central Park in contrast to the 10 or so seen on stage.

The movie’s supporting roles are filled with several high-profile actors: Jon Lovitz, Uma Thurman, Roger Bart (George from “Desperate Housewives”) and Will Farrell, who with Lane recently earned Golden Globe nominations. The movie also was nominated for best picture (musical or comedy) and best original song (“There’s Nothing Like a Show on Broadway”).

It’s also another good bet that there wouldn’t be a new “Producers” movie if Lane and Broderick hadn’t agreed to reprise their roles.

“In terms of the film, it had to be that way,” Bethea said.

Belflower agreed.

“You kind of have to have the two of them to make the movie work,” she said.

Only time will tell if the movie succeeds the second time around.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.