Recording “The Producers”: A Musical Romp With Mel Brooks

Exactly what it sounds like. Cameras were brought in to the recording session for the Original Cast album of Mel Brooks’s huge Broadway hit. I’m fascinated by this sort of thing. I’ve seen several of them. The one for Sondheim’s Follies got rather heated before the end, but it turned out to be worth all the berating and bad feeling as Stephen S. kept demanding more, more, more from Alexis Smith … and he finally got a take that even to my less-than-perfect ear was a lot better. And she thanked him for it. This session was much more laid back. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun, Mel particularly, laughing and ad-libbing with the cast.