NEW YORK (Sony Classical) - The movie classic that became a Broadway sensation now becomes a movie musical event - Mel Brooks' The Producers, the enduring Broadway hit that won a record 12 Tony Awards, returns to the screen under the direction of Susan Stroman, director/choreographer of the acclaimed stage production, with Tony winners Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick recreating their triumphant stage performances and Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell singing and dancing in their first big-screen musical. Sony Classical will release the film's original soundtrack recording on Tuesday, November 22, 2005.
A Brooksfilms production released by Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures, produced by Mel Brooks and Jonathan Sanger, The Producers premieres in exclusive, single-screen engagements in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto on Friday, December 16, 2005. The film will open on 1,200 screens nationwide on Sunday, December 25, 2005, and it will expand further on Friday, January 13, 2006.
The soundtrack will include most of the hit songs from the stage production, for which Brooks wrote the music and lyrics, including "We Can Do It," "I Wanna Be a Producer," "Keep It Gay," "Along Came Bialy," "That Face" and, of course, "Springtime for Hitler." With Thomas Meehan, Brooks also wrote the musical's book as well as the film's screenplay. Stroman won Tonys for her direction and choreography of the Broadway production, and she is making her debut as a film director. In addition to Nathan Lane's Tony-winning portrayal of Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick's acclaimed Leo Bloom, Gary Beach reprises his Tony-winning performance as Roger De Bris, and Roger Bart once again plays De Bris' assistant Carmen Ghia. Joining them in the film are Uma Thurman as Ulla, Max and Leo's secretary, and Will Ferrell as the playwright Franz Liebkind.
"I've never been happier than when I was writing the musical score of The Producers," Brooks says. "One song after another tumbled out of my head in what was the most soul-satisfying experience of my career. And in my less than humble opinion, I must say that it turned out to be surprisingly good."
For the film, Brooks has written a new end-title song - "There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway" - which Lane and Broderick will introduce on the soundtrack. As a second end-title track, Ferrell has recorded "The Hop-Clop Goes On," a "power ballad" arrangement of his character's song from the show, "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop." Also, the score has been rearranged for larger musical forces by Douglas Besterman, who won a Tony for his orchestrations of the stage production.
Based on the 1968 film of the same title for which Brooks won an Oscar for his screenplay, The Producers opened to critical acclaim on Broadway in the spring of 2001 and became an immediate hit. It swept the theatrical awards for the 2000-01 season, winning the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Circle awards for Best Musical. Its total of 12 Tony Awards shattered a record set almost 40 years earlier by Hello, Dolly! In 2005, the London production won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical.
Sony Classical made the original cast recording - which went on to win a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album - and also produced a documentary film about the recording session, Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks, that won a Grammy for Best Longform Music Video.
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