Mel Brooks developing "The Producers" and "Young Frankenstein" for the musical theater, saying of an early meeting with her: "From that day, until her death…we were glued together." Regarding religion, Brooks stated, "I'm rather secular. I'm basically Jewish. But I think I'm Jewish not because of the Jewish religion at all. I think it's the relationship with the people and the pride I have. The tribe surviving so many misfortunes, and being so brave and contributing so much knowledge to the world and showing courage." Brooks' great-nephew from his brother Lenny, Todd Kaminsky, is a New York state senator for state senate
John Morris (composer) to Independence, Kansas while he was young, and continued studying piano. By the late 1940s, he moved back to New York City, where he studied at both Juilliard School and at The New School for Social Research. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Morris helped to compose incidental music and dance numbers for a number of Broadway productions, including "Wildcat" (1960), "Hot Spot" (1963), "Baker Street" (1965), "Dear World" (1969), "Mack & Mabel" (1974), and "Hamlet" (1975). He had written and produced his own musical, "A Time for Singing", released in 1966. Morris worked with Mel Brooks, starting with Brooks'