Overview
Mel Brooks once again delights audiences with his ingenious, infectiously, irreverent humor, knocking 'em dead on Broadway with the hottest ticket in town, The Producers. Brooks's raucous musical comedy, with the impossibly charismatic duo Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) and Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick) as the wily producers who cook the books and conspire to produce the worst musical ever, has won an unprecedented twelve Tony Awards (including best musical, best direction, best actor, and best original score for Brooks) and has been hailed "a gift from the show-biz gods" (Time magazine). This is the definitive account of a once-in-a-lifetime show.With characteristic candor, Mel Brooks and co-librettist Tom Meehan give an intimate glimpse of the musical Brooks calls his "love letter to Broadway." They explain the process of turning an idea into a show and detail how the creative team, which includes director/choreographer Susan Stroman and musical arranger Glen Kelly, has made The Producers into a smash hit. This lavishly illustrated book presents the libretto of the musical, in addition to such treats as annotated excerpts and never-before-seen outtakes. It contains Brooks's Tony Award-winning original songs, plus a hilarious send-up of Oklahoma! that never made it to the stage, entitled Hey, Nebraska! This book is a thrilling collection of brilliant costume and set illustrations, gorgeous photographs of scenes from the production and rehearsals, and personal photographs and anecdotes from the cast and crew. The Producers: The Book, Lyrics, and Story behind the Biggest Hit in Broadway History! pays tribute to the genius of the show, capturing permanently the magic and wild hilarity of this Broadway phenomenon.
About the Authors:
Director, producer, writer, and actor Mel Brooks is the creator of such comedy classics as Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, and Silent Movie. Winner of an Academy Award for The Producers screenplay, Brooks won three of the twelve Tonys awarded to the record-breaking musical. Brooks is one of a few in the pantheon of entertainers to win an award grand slam: two Oscars, a Grammy, three Tonys, and four Emmys.
Thomas Meehan won his first Tony in 1977 for writing Annie and his second in 2001 for co-writing the book of The Producers with Mel Brooks. He is a long-time contributor to the New Yorker and an Emmy Award-winning television writer, and he has collaborated on a number of screenplays.