This charming man

Mel Brooks is bringing The Producers and a whole heap of charm to London
Claire Allfree|Metro10 April 2012

Mel Brooks is recording the sound of a cat into my tape recorder. 'This is an alley cat, moping around, looking for food, maybe company,' he says, making a harsh, skulking noise that does indeed sound like a cat prowling around a dustbin.

'And this,' aiming an unearthly squawk straight at the microphone, 'is what happens when a bigger cat, maybe a dog, jumps at him. That's two Mel Brooks impressions recorded just for you.'

Brooks - 78 and, by his own admission, 'short' - is nothing if not charming. 'Your eyes are lovely,' he says at one point. Later: 'I love English girls. And Scottish ones.

I used to meet them in pubs and go drinking on Sauchiehall Street [he was stationed in Glasgow near the end of World War II]. Two beautiful women, one on each arm.'

This sort of digression is typical of Brooks, who's in town to promote the London transfer of his musical comedy The Producers, starring Lee Evans and Richard Dreyfuss and based on his 1968 film.

He also has a habit of randomly breaking into song. Where Did It All Go Right? is one favourite from the show, written by himself, but snippets of Cole Porter and Noel Coward crop up too, delivered with shameless abandon in a chewy Brooklyn voice.

All of which makes it a little tricky to keep Brooks focused. Still, after a lifetime in comedy, his star is shining more brightly than it has ever done before.

Like almost everything he has worked on, the film of The Producers - about two sharks who hit upon the idea of making a fortune by producing a sure-fire flop, and come up with a musical about Hitler - initially split the critics. But with the musical version, he has his first unequivocal hit.

The Producers won a record 12 Tony awards when it opened on Broadway in 2001, created a huge scrum for tickets and was credited with returning a much-mourned vaudeville spirit to New York.

'Sometimes people just wanna watch an old-fashioned love story, laugh at a good joke and sing along to a good song,' he says. 'Broadway had got terribly serious. The Producers came along at the right time.'

No one could accuse The Producers of being serious, yet it's far from uncomplicated escapism. With its lyrics such as 'We're moving to a faster pace/look out, here comes the Master Race', it's outrageously politically incorrect satire.

Brooks maintains that beneath the frivolity of his work there is always a very simple moral message. 'You can't watch The Producers and forget that, in 1942, the Nazis exterminated the Jews,' he says. 'Comedy brings down regimes far more quickly than rhetoric,' he adds. 'You can fight evil more efficiently if you are a great comedy swordsman.'

Brooks admits he is not political, yet is outraged over the Iraq war and says he wants to write a musical about Bush and Osama Bin Laden and call it The Search.

Really though, his career has only been interested in getting as many people to laugh as possible. His style is bold, brash, silly and, crucially, never discriminates. The musical of The Producers is this objective incarnate.

'The response of the audience has always meant more to me than the Tony awards,' says Brooks - and you believe him. 'Sometimes I still creep in at the back of the theatre in New York, listen to everyone cheering, and I wipe away a tear.'

The Producers, previews from Oct 22, opens Nov 9 until Apr 23, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street WC2, Mon to Sat 7.30pm, Wed and Sat mats 2.30pm, £10 to £49. Tel: 0870 890 1109. Tube: Covent Garden

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in