The Book of Mormon (musical) with tyrannical, charismatic men with way too many children, our heroes... must confront a one-eyed, genocidal warlord with an unprintable name... That's enough to test the faith of even the most optimistic gospel spreaders (not to mention songwriters). Yet in setting these dark elements to sunny melodies "The Book of Mormon" achieves something like a miracle. It both makes fun of and ardently embraces the all-American art form of the inspirational book musical. No Broadway show has so successfully had it both ways since Mel Brooks adapted his film "The Producers" for the stage a decade ago." Jon Stewart, host
Mel Brooks America's two funniest filmmakers." That year, Brooks produced the dramatic film "The Elephant Man" (directed by David Lynch). Knowing that anyone seeing a poster reading "Mel Brooks presents "The Elephant Man"" would expect a comedy, he set up the company Brooksfilms. Brooksfilms has since produced a number of non-comedy films, including David Cronenberg's "The Fly", "Frances", and "84 Charing Cross Road", starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft, along with comedies, including Richard Benjamin's "My Favorite Year", which was partially based on Mel Brooks' real life. Brooks sought to purchase the rights to "84 Charing Cross Road" for his wife, Anne