The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks’ 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by overselling interests in a Broadway flop. The humor of the show draws on ridiculous accents, characters of homosexuals and Nazis, and many show business in-jokes. After 33 previews, the original Broadway production opened at the St. James Theatre on April 19, 2001, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and ran for 2,502 performances, winning a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards. It spawned a successful London production running for just over two years, US national tours, many productions worldwide and a 2005 film version.
Gallery Players, the longest running community theatre in the Midwest, presents a season lineup highlighting the Jewish experience and work by Jewish playwrights. This season includes three weekends of performances of The Producers, the first three weekends of March.
ARTS provided video production services to Gallery Players for their production of The Producers. We created a rig to mount a Canon DSLR from about 20′ high in their stage house to be aimed at down at the stage. The camera recorded a dance sequence that we then brought back to our office and edited. We provided the final edit to the team at Gallery Players, which they incorporated into their video projection cues for the show. The video is projected onto the cyc at the back of the stage during a shtick during a scene in the show.