December 21, 2005

Matthew Broderick hopes for "Producers" film success

By Betsy Pickle, Scripps Howard News Service

Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, currently starring in the film version of "The Producers" and the Broadway revival of "The Odd Couple," only appear to be joined at the hip.

"We've worked for a long time together now," says Broderick. "Not as long as it is in people's minds. We've done two plays. People think it's been a whole career in vaudeville or something."

All told, Broderick and Lane spent about 20 months rehearsing and performing together on stage in the 2001 Tony Award winner "The Producers" and several more months making the film version of the musical, which expands its run on Christmas Day. Both also provided voices for 1994's "The Lion King"—Broderick was the lion Simba, and Lane was the meerkat Timon.

"I love working with him. I hope to keep doing it," says Broderick, whose other famous union is with actress wife Sarah Jessica Parker, with whom he "produced" 3-year-old son James Wilke.

On stage, "The Producers" was a smash, setting box-office records and winning 12 Tonys, including Best Musical, Book of a Musical, Original Score, Actor-Musical (Lane), Featured Actor (Gary Beach) and Featured Actress (Cady Huffman). Susan Stroman, who won Tonys for directing and choreographing "The Producers," makes her feature-directing debut with the film.

Broderick doesn't know why "The Producers," the story of a hack Broadway producer and an accountant trying to get rich by staging a flop, hit such a chord.

"From the minute we started doing it, the audience was, like, 'Yeah. More! That's what we want,'" he says. "The second we started in Chicago, audiences loved it. Even jokes that weren't very good, they were like, 'Fine. It doesn't matter.'. . .

"I don't know why it's so popular. Some people said it's the silliness of it and that it was politically incorrect. At that time it was a joy for people to see a musical that was just entertaining. It wasn't 'Les Miz.' It wasn't operatic. It was an old-fashioned musical comedy."

Broderick suspects the magic starts with the 1968 Mel Brooks film comedy on which the musical was based.

"There's just something great about the story of these two guys," he says. "I don't know what it is, but it worked great in the original movie, and people ate it up (at the theater)."

When Broderick was asked to play Leo Bloom (the character portrayed by Gene Wilder in the Brooks film) on stage, he was hesitant.

"I was always worried about that because I love Gene Wilder so much and particularly in that—I shouldn't even say particularly; I like him in everything," he says. "But I can't get his performance out of my head; there's no way.

"I remember when we started, I told Susan Stroman, 'I don't know how to do this because I can close my eyes and basically watch the whole movie.' She said, 'Once you do it over and over, it'll just drift toward you.'

"I basically started just with his stuff, and a lot of it is really just lifted right from him. But I didn't write the script either, so I'm basing it on the words somebody wrote, and a lot of the performance is based on him, too. I hope that is OK.

"But then I just over time started to get more of my own ideas and get more of myself into the part, and hopefully that stayed when we went into the movie."

Brooks, who co-wrote the new film and produced it, provided valuable advice, Broderick says.

"He's very interested in you doing whatever you feel like, but if he has an idea, he'll tell you and be very straightforward about it," says Broderick. ... That was one of the great things about this job was just getting to know him and work with him."

Broderick, 43, has been successful on both stage and screen since his early 20s. While he was making a name for himself in the theater world in "Torch Song Trilogy," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "Biloxi Blues," "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Night Must Fall," he also was working steadily as the star of such films as "WarGames," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Glory," "The Freshman," "Addicted to Love," "Godzilla," "Election" and "Inspector Gadget."

"The Producers" is primed to be a holiday-season hit, but it has the potential to cause friction at home. Parker stars in a rival film, "The Family Stone." Broderick jokingly describes it as a boxing match.

"I'm rope-a-dope—I'm gonna tire her out and then pummel her in the seventh round," he says, grinning. "I hope they both do well. It'd certainly make things easier around the home. It'd be good for James Wilke."

"She's great in 'The Family Stone.' I love that movie, too," says Broderick.