Stroman directed the reading of The Producers and is thought to have an emotional connection to the piece: Her husband, the director Mike Ockrent, was closely involved in its creative genesis before he died of leukemia in December.
Perhaps the strongest suit is the show's potential director, Susan Stroman, who has already scored this season with Contact and whose coming revival of The Music Man has been generating a buzz of its own. 'They smell a hit.'īrooks has written about a dozen songs in addition to the two howlingly funny tunes from the film: Springtime for Hitler and Love Power. 'Everybody jumped up at the end and said, 'Me, me, me,'' said one producer who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of spoiling his chances of joining the project.
While most who saw the reading said that the piece still needed work, the show generated strong buzz inside the very realm it skewers.
