The Producers (musical) The Producers (musical) The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks's 1967 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. 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 draws on ridiculous accents, caricatures of homosexuals and Nazis, and many show business in-jokes. After 33 previews, the original Broadway production
Mel Brooks Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, and Barry Levinson and was the first movie produced by Brooks himself. It starred Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, Ron Carey, Howard Morris, and Dick Van Patten. The film satirizes such Hitchcock classic films as "Vertigo", "Spellbound", "Psycho", "The Birds", "North by Northwest", "Dial M for Murder", and "Suspicion". Brooks stars as Professor Richard H. (for Harpo) Thorndyke, a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist who also happens to suffer from "high anxiety". By 1980 "Siskel and Ebert" called Mel Brooks and Woody Allen "the two most successful comedy directors in the world today ...