A report in The Canadian Press says that comedian Mel Brooks is working on a musical adaptation of his 1974 film 'Blazing Saddles'. Brooks says he has written two songs for the show and is currently working on a third.
During a phone interview with The Canadian Press, Brooks said, "I don't know - if I did it, I wouldn't rush to New York with it because the Times would say: 'Oh dear, oh dear, another movie converted and transmogrified into a musical...The Times was only lukewarm to 'Young Frankenstein,' but you know, everybody else was hot - some of the greatest reviews I ever got."
Brook's production of 'Young Frankenstein' is on a national tour and slated to open on Wednesday, March 17, in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre for a run scheduled through April 18. While the initial reception to the show was lukewarm (the show first opened on Broadway in 2007 and closed mere months later) Brooks' spirits aren't damped. He tells the Canadian Press, "I think if 'Young Frankenstein' had come out first, it would've done spectacularly. But following 'The Producers,' you know, that was a rough go for critical praise. ... But you know what counters that in less than a second? Audiences -live audiences in their response. They are so enthusiastic with such rich laughter and applause," he said.
"I tell ya, anytime I'm depressed, all I've got to do is sit in the audience of 'Young Frankenstein' and listen to the roars, the gales of laughter rolling over me, and I say, 'Yeah, it's good, it's really good."'
To read the rest of the story in The Canadian Press, click here.
Director, producer, writer and actor, Mel Brooks 2001 smash hit Broadway musical The Producers-winner of a recordbreaking 12 Tony Awards. Three of those (Best Score, Best Book of a Musical, Best Musical), along with two Grammy Awards (Best Musical Show Album and Best Long-Form Music Video), went to Brooks himself. He recently followed it up with the successful Broadway production of Young Frankenstein, which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical.
Brooks began his distinguished career during television's Golden Age as a writer for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows in 1951. In 1955, 1956 and 1957, he received Emmy nominations (with others) for Best Comedy Writing for Caesar's Hour. In 1952, Brooks wrote sketches for Leonard Sillman's Broadway smash-hit revue New Faces of 1952, and in 1957, together with Joe Darion, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Shinbone Alley, which starred Eartha Kitt. In 1962, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical All American, starring Ray Bolger.
In the ‘60s, Brooks teamed up with Carl Reiner to write and perform The 2000 Year Old Man albums, which became immediate bestsellers. In 1960 and 1961, Brooks and Reiner received Grammy nominations for Best Spoken-Word Comedy for 2000 Years and for Best Comedy Performance for 2000 and One Years, respectively. In 1997, Brooks and Reiner teamed up again for The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000. Both a book and CD were released, the CD winning a Grammy in 1998 for the Best Spoken-Word Album, Comedy.
In 1968, he wrote and directed his first feature film, The Producers, starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. He then went on to create a remarkable string of hit comedies: 1970, wrote, directed and acted in The Twelve Chairs; 1974, co-wrote, directed and acted in Blazing Saddles and was nominated, along with John Morris, for Best Title Song, "Blazing Saddles"; 1974, co-wrote and directed Young Frankenstein; 1976, cowrote, directed and starred in Silent Movie; 1977, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in High Anxiety; 1981, wrote, directed, produced and starred in History of the World, Part I; 1983, produced and starred in To Be or Not to Be; 1987, cowrote, directed, produced and starred in the hit sci-fi spoof, Spaceballs; 1991, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Life Stinks; 1993, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Robin Hood: Men in Tights; 1995, co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Dracula: Dead and Loving It; and 2005, co-wrote and produced The Producers, the film version of his Tonywinning 2001 Broadway musical and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, "There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway."
