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Actors Act. Directors Direct. Producers … Produce? Mel Brooks’s The Producers and the Creation of an Archetype

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Abstract

Mel Brooks’s 1968 film The Producers and its musical versions (2001, stage; 2005, film) tell the tale of two fictional producers, Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom. Brooks’s visions offer a great deal of information about the reputation of producers as both artistic creators and businessmen. Brooks shows Broadway musical producers as being Jewish, male, and interested in making a lot of money and offers images into what a producer does and how the profession has been crafted and disseminated through his immensely popular film and musical.

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Edney, K. (2017). Actors Act. Directors Direct. Producers … Produce? Mel Brooks’s The Producers and the Creation of an Archetype. In: MacDonald, L., Everett, W. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43308-4_2

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