'THE PRODUCERS' BACK ON FILM NATHAN LANE AND MATTHEW BRODERICK GIVE THEIR BIALYSTOCK AND BLOOM THE ULTIMATE STAYING POWER.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

The subversive movie that became a crowd-pleasing throwback Broadway musical has become a crowd-pleasing throwback movie musical, and if you're a fan of Mel Brooks' indestructible ``The Producers,'' you've got to wonder what's going to be next.

``Mel tells me he's got this great idea for Claymation,'' jokes Matthew Broderick, who reteams with his Broadway co-star Nathan Lane in the new film, currently in limited release. ``It's also the kind of thing you could see being updated 20 years from now. If you could have 'Springtime for Hitler' 20 years after World War II, why not 'Springtime for Saddam' in the near future?''

Why not, indeed? With ``The Producers,'' anything goes, both in its Brooks-ian celebration of theater folk and its unique mix of cornball humor and sublime sophistication and in the way it went, in its first film incarnation, from a movie that was going to be shelved to a beloved favorite that won Brooks the Oscar for best original screenplay.

``With this show, nothing will ever surprise me,'' says Susan Stroman, the Broadway veteran who directed both the stage musical and the new movie. It goes back to the days when people used movie musicals as escapism. All you have to do is look at the front page of the newspaper to see that the same thing is going on now.''

In case you missed the 1968 movie (which starred Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel), or haven't seen the show (it ran for a few months - with Jason Alexander and Martin Short in the Lane and Broderick roles at the Pantages in 2003), ``The Producers'' follows a washed-up impresario (Max Bialystock, played by Lane) and a mousy accountant (Leo Bloom, played by Broderick) who attempt to stage a surefire flop, the worst play ever written - the aforementioned ``Springtime for Hitler'' - so it will simultaneously open and close and they can run off to Rio with their investors' money.

The movie was Brooks' first (and, to many, his funniest), but it was almost left for dead when test audiences didn't dig the ribald humor and Nazi spoofing. Then Peter Sellers saw the film by accident - he was at a private screening, and the scheduled movie never arrived - and he quickly took out an ad in Variety, applauding the film and calling for its immediate release. A few months later, it arrived in theaters, and Sellers wasn't the only one applauding.

Thirty years later, David Geffen convinced Brooks to turn it into a stage musical. Brooks didn't need much prodding. He had always dreamed about being a Broadway composer and lyricist. (Where do you think ``Springtime for Hitler'' came from?) The sold-out houses and record-setting Tony Award haul (12 wins out of 14 nominations) confirmed Geffen's instincts.

Soon after ``The Producers'' opened on Broadway in the spring of 2001, Brooks began thinking about making a film version of the musical. Two things motivated him: He wanted to preserve the performances on film - in addition to stars Broderick and Lane, Gary Beach and Roger Bart reprise their Broadway roles, playing, respectively, the flamboyant Broadway hack director and his common-law assistant.

Then there was Brooks' love for the old MGM movie musicals. When he approached Stroman about possibly directing the movie, he asked her, ``What movie would you want to make it like?'' For Brooks, she gave the correct answer: ``Singin' in the Rain.''

``Mel's love is to see the bodies in motion without any cutting,'' Stroman says. ``His favorite movie of all time is the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical 'Top Hat.' So when you see the dance numbers in the movie, it's all head-to-toe dancers. ... We wanted people to feel like they'd been dropped into theater heaven.''

One problem that the cast - at least those who had done the show on stage - faced was that they were no longer in the theater heaven they knew from Broadway. Broderick, Lane, Beach and Bart were accustomed to pausing between sentences to accommodate the audience's laughter and applause. Shooting the movie was no laughing matter.

``You'd be thinking, 'God, it is terribly quiet in here,' '' Lane says. ``Big punch lines ... nothing.''

Adds Broderick: ``I would tell Nathan that it was like doing the show 25 times a day for a Wednesday matinee in July - with no air conditioning. But that's the way it is with movie comedy. You just assume it will be funny for someone someday.''

Broderick did appreciate the opportunity to let Leo Bloom, the meek accountant, be quiet and allow the subtleties of the character, such as they are, to come forth.

``Trying to grab the attention of an audience on stage goes against the nature of that character,'' Broderick says. ``So it was nice to let the camera decide where to look and not have to grab the audience by the lapels.''

There are no such subtleties to Lane's boisterous Bialystock, but the Broadway veteran did appreciate the opportunity to open the show up and move a couple of big production numbers to Central Park (``We Can Do It'') and Fifth Avenue (``Along Came Bialy''). He also praises newcomers Uma Thurman (playing the sexy Swedish secretary) and Will Ferrell (Franz Liebkind, the Nazi-loving playwright).

``All that stuff was fun, but I'm glad we didn't rethink the show,'' Lane says. ''It is what it is, a throwback that isn't like anything else out there. It has that deliberate, artificial feel to it. It's something from the soundstage era. People haven't seen that for a while, so it seems fresh. It came along at the right time.''

Lane and Broderick are currently a team again, selling out the house in a revival of Neil Simon's ``The Odd Couple.'' Lane jokes that he doesn't like Broderick, adding, ``But I've got to make a living.'' Then he'll bend your ear for five minutes talking about the ways he respects his co-star.

``They're both natural showmen,'' Stroman says. ``Even off stage or off camera, there's an element of 'can you top this?' toward each other. They watch each other like a hawk, and they focus. And they do enjoy each other's company. It's not unlike Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, well-matched equals who love the challenge, the one-upmanship.''

Says Lane: ``Love has kept us together. And we never go to bed angry.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) WE'RE BACK!

Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane stage a film comeback of `The Producers'

(2) Nathan Lane, left, Uma Thurman and Matthew Broderick star in the new film version of the evergreen musical ``The Producers.''

(3) Things are looking scary for gay director Roger De Bris (Gary Beach, left), his common-law assistant Carmen Ghia (Roger Bart), conniving impresario Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) and tremulous accountant Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick).

(4) Sexy secretary Ulla (Uma Thurman) is a comforting presence for her boss (Broderick).