A Year with the Producers: One Actor's Exhausting (But Worth It) Journey from Cats to Mel Brooks' Mega-Hit

by Jeffry Denman

Overview

A behind-the-scenes story with more than a touch of theatrical magic about it, A Year with The Producers is a book for actors and theater fans everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135869052
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/27/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	204
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Buffalo-born Jeffry Denman, currently in The Producers, has also appeared in the Broadway revival of How toSucceed, the Johnny Mercer musical Dream, as Munkustrap in Cats, and on PBS's Great Performances My FavoriteBroadway. He has also choreographed Naked Boys Singing! and is developing his own show, Dancing in the Dark, for New York.

Read an Excerpt

First Full Cast Day

Monday, December 11:
Okay. While there are some things in the script that I think need work, I have never laughed so hard at a read-thru in my life. I don't know where to start. I think for me the most exciting part of the day is when Mel came up to me and shook my hand and told me, "We've got a lot for you to do. We're very happy we got you. Lots for you to do, Jeffry Denman." He kept calling me by both my names. He was doing that with everyone. He is incredibly charming and funny. He's like your favorite uncle at the family picnic. Matthew was happy to see me. We spoke about the fact that every musical he's done on Broadway I've been in. Okay, okay, so he's only done two. I'm looking forward to watching him work again. I find him fascinating. Still no word on the understudy front. The guy from 60 Minutes was there, Mike Wallace. Wanted to ask him about the whole big tobacco scandal but thought better of it. They were filming our read-thru. That was weird. This thing better be good, because the eyes of the world are on us.

They are apparently going to be doing a special segment on us when we open, so they'll be filming rehearsals and performances in Chicago and New York. Yeek. Robin Wagner's set looks fun and surprisingly funny. I didn't think a set could be funny. The rest of the songs sound great. Really great. They are good old-fashioned Broadway musical comedy. And the lyrics are hysterical. There are homages to about fifteen different shows. There is a whole "Rose's Turn" (from Gypsy) section in Max's 11:00 number that had everybody pissing their pants. Glen Kelly has arranged the songs and has put them perfectly in line with Matthew's voice. He sounds so great. Gary Beach is a hoot as Roger DeBris. I'm such a fan of his. Not sure about Cady Huffman. I've never seen her in anything, so I don't have much to go on. Plus, I don't think her part is as fleshed out as it needs to be. But I'm not going to judge from a read-thru. Roger Bart remembers me from putting the How to Succeed tour together. He's very friendly and asks how I've been and all that. Ron Orbach is super nice too. I tell him that I liked him in Laughter on the 23rd Floor. It was on of the first plays I saw when I came to the city. We comment on the fact that in that show he portrayed the Mel Brooks character. Not so sure about his first song, "Guten Tag Hop Clop." They (Max, Leo, and Franz) apparently do a Bavarian slap folk dance. Seems a little forced to me. They have to dance in order to get him to sign a contract? We must be in a musical!

There's also a song in the second act called "It's Bad Luck to Say Good Luck on Op'ning Night." This also feels a bit forced. One of those we have a lot of people changing costumes, so we need a song here situations. The rest of the songs work well and come out of the show cleanly. This one seems a bit clunky.

The thing that got me most today was Max and Leo's final song. It's called "Till Him." Matthew sang it so softly and understated, I thought I was going to cry. Started laughing instead. The lyrics are perfect. Even though the movie is brilliant, "Till Him" seems to capture the friendship that Max and Leo share for each other a little bit better. The melody delicately bounces up and down and then soars at the bridge, just like a good song should. "He filled up my empty life. Filled it to the brim." I'm laughing (read: crying). It seems like a perfect ending. I hope it doesn't get cut.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 I Have an Audition; Chapter 2 The Callback; Chapter 3 Cats, Backstage; Chapter 4 The Closing; Chapter 5 A Road Not Taken; Chapter 6 Leo Bloom Understudy Audition; Chapter 7 First Costume Fitting; Chapter 8 First Day of Rehearsal; Chapter 9 Satan Enters My Body; Chapter 10 End of the First Week; Chapter 11 First Full Cast Day; Chapter 12 Week Two; Chapter 13 Understudy Assignments; Chapter 14 Week Three; Chapter 15 Trying Things Out; Chapter 16 Reality Sets In; Chapter 17 Producer Run-Thru; Chapter 18 Invited Dress; Chapter 19 Chicago; Chapter 20 Sitzprobe; Chapter 21 First Preview — Chicago; Chapter 22 Opening Night In Chicago; Chapter 23 Final Show In Chicago; Chapter 24 Home Again — New York; Chapter 25 The Cast Recording; Chapter 26 Dress Run; Chapter 27 First Preview — New York; Chapter 28 Opening Night; Chapter 29 Fifteen; Chapter 30 Tony, Tony, Tony, Tonyyyyyy; Chapter 31 Feeling A Little “Bookish”; Chapter 32 The Documentary Screening; Chapter 33 Character Assassinations; Chapter 34 Three Days To Go; Chapter 35 One Day To Go; Chapter 36 The Last Entry;

Foreword

When you're in a show like The Producers, you're a part of something so full of energy that it isn't always easy to take a step back and see how you - and it - got there. Jeff Denman had the good idea of keeping a journal - something many of us wish we had done and hardly ever take the time to do.

Jeff and I worked together in my first Broadway musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I didn't see a lot of him, though, because he was an offstage understudy, what we call a swing. Now we're on the same stage in The Producers. I play Leo Bloom opposite Nathan Lane's Max Bialystock. And Jeff? Jeff plays a blind violinist, a terrible choreographer, a little old lady in a walker, FDR, a guy auditioning to play the Führer in "Springtime for Hitler," and a Nazi or two. Not a lot of lines, but a lot of work.

I've never been in the ensemble of a Broadway show. As Leo Bloom, I've got to have a big picture. But the ensemble is about having a lot of little pictures and making them all fit into the frame. Reading Jeff's account of how The Producers got put together I'm reminded of what is too easy to forget. I'm thinking, for example, of how tough it was to get that blanket drop right in the Leo-Ulla scene in act two (note to Jeff: the trick is in the way Leo puts the blanket into his pocket a few minutes earlier). So much effort goes into a routine we try to make the audience think is second nature. If you read what Jeff has to say about a few seconds on stage as FDR, you'll see what I mean. All big shows work this way. The Producers is no exception. Jeff's year begins with Cats, a show he joined in its final Broadway life. It ends when he goes on one weekend for, er, me as Leo Bloom. He's proud of getting that blue blanket drop in all four performances. He should be. Jeff doesn't say it's his favorite year, but he comes close. Anyone who has been in an ensemble or an audition will recognize Jeff's story. Anyone who has seen a Broadway show and wondered how it gets put together will enjoy the backstage view. Like everyone else in the theater, Jeff's love of performing gets him on stage. I think that comes through on the pages that follow. I hope you'll enjoy reading them. And see a Broadway show soon.

Matthew Broderick
December 2001

Editorial Reviews

From the closing night of one smash, "Cats," to the opening night of another, "The Producers," Jeffrey Denman takes us on a delightful and insightful backstage tour of the Great White Way. His portraits of Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman are gems and add much to our understanding of how these towering creative talents work. How lucky for us that Mr. Denman is as fine a writer as he is a performer.

Michael Riedel

In the summer of 2000, Denman, an actor in New York for eight years, set his heart on appearing in Brooks's much-hyped musical, ignoring New York Post gossip writer Michael Riedel's acerbic comment that it "[h]as all the makings of a floperoo." Here, Denman offers a candid one-year diary of his experiences as singer, dancer and understudy in the production. His style is breezy and refreshingly honest, charting each step from audition to opening night. Winning over director Susan Stroman was the first challenge, and Denman describes achieving the prayed-for callback through intense mental focus that convinces director, composer and author that you're exactly what they've been looking for. The first day of rehearsal establishes a caste system, during which principals frequently ignore those who don't have speaking lines. Dramatizing the confining nature of a Broadway commitment, he asks Stroman for one day off to do an important career-enhancing performance and is flatly denied permission. Tensions mount after a main actor loses his voice and a pre-Broadway Chicago run reveals serious problems. Denman vividly recounts the terror of opening night in New York, and readers share his later triumph when he goes on for star Matthew Broderick and scores a hit. Affectionate biographies of Broderick, Stroman, Nathan Lane, librettist Tom Meehan and Mel Brooks round out the book. Denman's emotional narrative maintains suspense and sufficiently informs, making this a textbook for anyone seeking a theatrical career and yearning "[t]o change, alter, enhance, deepen, and magnify the hearts of people who sit there watching." B&w photos. Agent, Ann Steele. (Apr.) Forecast: Even those lacking showbiz aspirations will enjoy this book; it has a strong inspirational angle. That, along with the show's blockbuster success, guarantees an instant hit. Making it available at theater district bookstores will help. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The staging of Broadway's The Producers as seen through the confident and vivacious eyes of a chorus member who eventually got to understudy Matthew Broderick as well. Denman uses a diary format to take readers almost day by day through the musical's creation. Though Mel Brooks wrote the score and script, many figured the stage version of The Producers would be hard-pressed to compete with fond memories of his movie. They were wrong: the show turned out to be a great hit, not least because of the work of actors such as Denman. He proves a humble enough guide, and frequently irresistible too. His delivery is breathless ("I fancied myself quite the young song-and-dance man. Still do. In Crazy for You, Harry was brilliant. I instantly became an admirer"), and he keeps the narrative frolicsome. Yet Denman also manages to squire the proceedings from auditions and callbacks through all the fortuitous stuff that goes into the making of a successful production (the little touches the actors add to the original material, for example) to the tech rehearsals, the press event, the producer's run-through, the invited dress, the first preview, and opening night. And that's just for the Chicago opening, after which it's time to iron out all the glitches, make last-minute changes, and repeat the whole process for make-it-or-break-it New York. Denman works wonders with atmosphere: there is a lovely moment when he speaks of the pleasure of an empty theater with only a ghost light on the stage and a stagehand or two lurking about. Next thing you know, there he is, the Tonys hardly handed out, auditioning for Oklahoma. Denman's show is always on; no wonder it's hard to take your eyes off him. An enjoyablepeek behind the curtain for those with an interest in theater but little actual experience with its production. (20 b&w photos)

Kirkus Reviews

"Here, Denman offers a candid one-year diary of his experiences as singer, dancer and understudy in the production. His style is breezy and refreshingly honest, charting each step from audition to opening night. Denman's emotional narrative maintains suspense and sufficiently informs, making this a textbook for anyone seeking a theatrical career and yearning "[t]o change, alter, enhance, deepen, and magnify the hearts of people who sit there watching. Even those lacking in showbiz aspirations will enjoy this book; it has a strong inspirational angle. That, along with the show's blockbuster success, guarantees an instant hit." -Publishers Weekly."
"From the closing night of one smash, "Cats," to the opening night of another, "The Producers," Jeffrey Denman takes us on a delightful and insightful backstage tour of the Great White Way. His portraits of Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman are gems and add much to our understanding of how these towering creative talents work. How lucky for us that Mr. Denman is as fine a writer as he is a performer. Michael Riedel, The New York Post."

From the Publisher