A Broadway Musical the black-themed musical itself. "The Wiz" proved to be Brown's only success. Following a dismal October–November tryout with Helen Gallagher and Julius LaRosa at the theatre in the Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, the producers fired most of the cast and creative personnel, including director/choreographer George Faison. Gower Champion was called in to rescue the Broadway-bound production with only a month to go, but he feared that the show's defects were too serious to remedy and insisted on receiving a "Production supervised by" credit only. After 14 previews, the Broadway production opened and closed the same night at the Lunt-Fontanne
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