‘I stated there was no cause to make it a musical!’ Mel Brooks on The Producers’ West Finish switch | Theatre

The Menier Chocolate Manufacturing unit has introduced that its acclaimed manufacturing of The Producers is to switch to the West Finish this autumn. Having offered out its three-month run on the 180-seat London venue earlier than first evening, it’s set to maneuver to the Garrick theatre. However based on its authentic creator Mel Brooks, the musical may by no means have occurred in any respect.

The 98-year-old Brooks has informed the Guardian he was initially reluctant to adapt his 1967 film for the stage. Solely by means of the persistence of a producer did he relent.

“David Geffen known as me day by day. I stated, ‘David, it’s a wonderfully good little film. I gained the Academy Award for my screenplay. It’s been honoured and saluted sufficient. There’s no cause to make it a musical.’ Then the subsequent day, he known as me once more. He by no means stopped calling me. And at last, I stated, ‘Nicely, he’s not a dumb man, so possibly there’s something.’”

Opening on Broadway in 2001, The Producers went on to win 12 Tonys. The New York Occasions known as it a “sublimely ridiculous spectacle” – a sentiment echoed by UK critics in 2004 and once more when director Patrick Marber staged the primary main London revival final yr.

“Marber is a terrific director and is ideal for it,” stated Brooks, who co-wrote the present with the late Thomas Meehan. Brooks additionally wrote the rating, that includes Springtime for Hitler.

“Tom was candy as sugar and really correct versus me who was very improper. In jokes and language, I used to be the unhealthy boy. I’m blamed for all that semi-dirty stuff, however that was actually secretly Tom Meehan – I’m spilling the beans!”

The manufacturing will switch to the Garrick theatre, the place the creator’s horror spoof, Younger Frankenstein, picked up five-star critiques in 2017. Staying with the present are key solid members Marc Antolin, Trevor Ashley, Raj Ghatak, Andy Nyman, Harry Morrison and Joanna Woodward.

“I’m very happy with that manufacturing on the Chocolate Manufacturing unit and I’m so pleased we’re going again to the Garrick,” stated Brooks.

In Marber’s manufacturing, Nyman performs Max Bialystock, a failing impresario who units out to stage a Broadway flop. He and his accountant, Leopold Bloom (Antolin), rent a neo-Nazi playwright, an incompetent director and a ineffective lead actor within the hope of closing the present and holding their traders’ cash. They assume no viewers would tolerate a sympathetic paean to Hitler and would have it shut down, clearing the way in which for them to make their fortune.

Brooks, who was born in 1926 and served as a fight engineer within the second world conflict (“I largely ducked”), has seen almost a century’s value of authoritarian rulers come and go. “I just like the ‘come and go’ – particularly the go,” he joked.

Now he lives in a rustic the place Nazi salutes seem to have been given at massive political rallies. “It’s one thing we hope will cross and go its means, similar to Hitler and his individuals did go their means.”

He stated he believes laughter is a strong weapon towards tyranny. “They’re gifted with a type of flagrant rhetoric, however when you make enjoyable of them and also you drag them down with comedy, you win. When you may get individuals to snort at them, you win.”

It’s an perspective formed by his expertise as a younger man performing comedy routines at Jewish resorts within the Catskill mountains. “We who’ve labored within the borscht belt know that comedy is the reply. It’s magical, it pays the lease and in addition we study stealing as a result of we steal jokes from one another – recklessly, not even enthusiastic about it.”

Public reserving for The Producers opens on 5 March. Previews run from 30 August and reserving will run to 21 February 2026.