The Producers (1967 film) replied that Wilder was "a natural comic, you look like Harpo Marx," and said he would cast him as Leo Bloom once he finished the then-titled "Springtime for Hitler." When production arrived, Peter Sellers accepted an invitation to play Leo Bloom, but he never contacted again, so Brooks remembered Wilder, who was about to make his film debut in "Bonnie and Clyde." Wilder received the script to "The Producers" as Brooks visited him backstage during a performance of "Luv," and his co-star Renée Taylor was brought for a brief appearance as Eva Braun. Dustin Hoffman was originally cast as Liebkind.
The Producers (musical) 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 in 1999, Stroman agreed to continue as both director and choreographer. In New York in 1959, theatre producer Max Bialystock opens "Funny Boy", a musical version of "Hamlet" ("Opening Night"). It is terrible, and the show closes after one performance. Max, who was once called the King of Broadway, tells a crowd of down-and-outs of his past achievements and vows to return to form ("King of Broadway"). The next