‘The Producers’ to Play Hollywood Bowl July 27-29

Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan’s Tony Award-winning musical “The Producers” will be presented at the Hollywood Bowl for three days this summer as part of the venue’s summer season. The play, based on Brooks’ 1968 Oscar-winning film of the same name, will be held July 27-29. Playbill reports the production will feature an all-star cast, but no cast has been announced at this time.

The official description of the musical lists it as the story of “a down-on-his-luck Broadway producer and his mild-mannered accountant [who] concoct a get-rich scheme to bilk their investors out of millions by producing the most notorious flop in history.”

The play premiered on Broadway in April 2001 and starred Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as the accountant, Leo Bloom. The musical went on to win 12 Tony Awards that year, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. Nathan Lane also won Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.

The play ran for almost exactly six years to the day, closing in April 2007 after 2,502 performances. When Broderick and Lane reprised their roles between December 2003 and December 2004, “The Producers” set a single day ticket sales record, bringing in $3.5 million. The show has previously set the same record at more than $3 million.

A U.S. tour featuring two companies played 74 cities from 2002-2003, and a West End version opened in 2004 and ran until 2007. It also has been performed in numerous productions throughout the United States and the world.

Other shows already lined up the Hollywood Bowl this summer include “A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor,” “An Evening with Liza Minnelli” and “sing-a-longs” for both “Grease” and “Sound of Music.” Additionally, concerts will be performed at the venue by Norah Jones, Ben Harper and Diana Krall, among others.