The Producers Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
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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