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NPR Fresh Air Jan 1 2004

hosted by Terry Gross
Recently transcribed by the Brookslyn webmaster!
Original audio available at NPR

January 1, 2004 · Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick have just returned to Broadway and their starring roles in The Producers -- the show based on Brooks' first feature film. They're doing a limited run through April 14. The Producers won 12 Tonys in 2001, including best musical, best book of a musical, best original score, and best actor. The book, the music and lyrics were written by Brooks. He's made some of the funniest films in movie history, including The Producers, Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles.

Terry: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick ended 2003 by returning to Broadway and their starring roles in The Producers. They're doing a limited run through April 14. The Producers won 12 Tonys in 2001, including best musical, best book of a musical, best original score, and best actor. The book, the music and lyrics were written by Brooks. He adapted the show from his first feature film, the Producers, which he wrote and directed. The story is about two producers with a convoluted scheme to make money by putting on the worst show even written. The show they come up with is the musical Springtime for Hitler.

[Plays Springtime for Hitler Clip]

Terry: I spoke with Mel Brooks about the Producers in 2001. Springtime for Hitler is just one of the satyrical songs about the Furor in the Producers. Brooks told me he fought against the Germans in World War II, although he didn't see much combat.

Mel: I was sent over in '45, the war was nearly over. We arrived sometime in the end of January. The Battle of the Bulge had already been fought and I came in on a new wave, moving across the Rhine at Ramagan. The Ramagan bridge head. And then we moved into Germany, and we moved into um, actually into Alsace-Lorraine. And I finally went... ended up in Frankfurt... Almans... we had some skirmishes out... the Germans were in flight. I mean they... we were fired on by a lot of kids and old men who were left in the villages. They were called wherewolves, snipers. So I was a radio operator and we'd figure out a position and tell the artillery to knock out a German post somewhere. And the minute we broadcast we had to hightail it outta there because 10 seconds later the road would be straddled with 88 shells. I mean, I mean, they would zero in and they were amazingly accurate.

Terry: And now, did you and your fellows tell Hitler jokes?

Mel: Oh yeah, once uh... actually, the Germans at one point broadcast to us, foolishly, that we would be treated well according to the Geneve Convention if we laid down our arms because they did... they thought they had us semi-surrounded, but they didn't. And they broadcast with these big, uh, bullhorns "[Mel does some German gibberish] Geneve Convention [German gibberish]..." I don't know what the hell they were saying, but they were yelling in German. And so I picked up our bullhorns and I sang "Toot, toot, tootsie goodbyeeeee, don't cry tootsie, don't cry..." I did this whole Jolson [Al] thing and believe it or not by the end of it I thought I heard a German applause from the otherside.

Terry: Did you really do that?

Mel: Yeah, I really did. What the hell, the bullhorn was there and I was a good singer. I though I'd give them a ya know...

Terry: And no one shot at you during that?

Mel: Well, I mean, we were far apart, ya know...

Terry: Right, right. Let me play a song that you wrote. Well, this is both in the movie and the show the Producers. And this is called "Haben Sie Gehort Das Deutsche Band?" and um...

Mel: "Haben Sie Gehort Das Deutsche Band," which means in English, "Have You Heard The German Band," was in the movie, the Producers. Uh, it was only about 8 bars and I took it, put it into the Producers on Broadway and now made a whole 32 bar song out of it.

Terry: Okay, let me just explain the context here, for our listeners who don't know the story. This is during the auditions to find the worst actor in the world to play Hitler in the worst play ever written. And one guy is auditioning as Hitler and the playwright, Franz Liebkind, thinks that this guy isn't investing enough masculinity in his depiction of Hitler... has to be more masculine. So the playwright steps in and does it himself to demonstrate how it should be done. So here is Brad Oscar as the playwright, Franz Liebkind, singing.

[Plays Haben Sie Gehort Das Deutsche Band? Clip]

Terry: Mel, one of the rules that Max Bialystock tells his protege Leo Bloom is that there is two cardinal rules of producing...

Mel: "There are two cardinal rules Bloom," because Bloom starts with, "how much do we put up?" And Nathan slips and falls and gets up and says, "Bloom, Bloom, there are two rules when producing a play on Broadway. One, never put your own money in the show." And then Bloom says, "And what's two?" And Nathan screams, "Never, put your own money in the show!"

Terry: After writing those two rules yourself... ya know, about never putting money into your own show, you're one of the producers of the Producers... which means you put your money into the show.

Mel: Actually, no. I'm an honorary producer because I became... I traded my underlying rights for a producership. And my underlying rights were worth as much as, financially, anybody, any of the producers so that's how I become a producer. But I never put a penny into the show. And now, who knew, I wish I'd put a million bucks into it. I mean, I would have gone to a bank and borrowed it and I would have been rich today. But, I'm okay, ya know. Who's complaining.

Terry: Mel Brooks, recorded in 2001. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick have returned to the Producers for a limited run through April 14th. Our series, "Songs from Hollywood and Broadway," concludes tomorrow.

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