The ultimate ‘Producer’: Broadway veteran brings Mel Brooks hit to South Bay

Richard Frankel has the ultimate job in American musical theater. He's the producer of "The Producers."

That includes the touring production now playing at the San Jose Center of the Performing Arts.

And though he doesn't swindle old ladies out of their life savings, Frankel does have a few things in common with Max Bialystock, the lovably lowdown main character in the award-winning Mel Brooks show.

For one thing, they're both Jewish. For another, Frankel does exclusively pursue small investors to back his new theater ventures.

"The character is exaggerated," says Frankel by phone from New York. "But he does capture the spirit of producing, which is a very risky business. We just do the best we can and think on our feet."

Perhaps most significantly Frankel, like Bialystock, has an abiding lifelong love of the theater.

Working in a profession identified by an inordinately large Jewish population, Frankel also has his own theory as to why the theater has traditionally attracted Jews.

"I can't say for sure what in the essence of the religion leads Jews to work in theater," he says, "but for me a lot of it is economic. Show business has always been a true meritocracy. And that draws Jews. I started out working as a carpenter off-off-Broadway then clawed my way up."

Long before the clawing began, the Brooklyn-born Frankel spent his teen summers working at Catskill resorts (taking in all the shtick-heavy entertainment) and slipping into Manhattan whenever he could to catch a Broadway show. As a child, he even saw Julie Andrews star in the original 1955 Broadway production of "My Fair Lady."

Involvement with his high school and college drama departments convinced him to pursue a career in the theater, and he's never looked back.

In recent years, with partners Steven Baruch and Tom Viertel, Frankel produced and general-managed some of the most successful plays and musicals on and off Broadway, in London and on tour. Among the shows he helped launch: "Hairspray," "Little Shop of Horrors," and "Smokey Joe's Cafe." Altogether, productions he's been associated with have earned 31 Tonys, 27 Drama Desk Awards, four Grammys and two Pulitzers.

Though he admits it's impossible to ever know for sure what the public wants to see, he knew from the moment he heard Mel Brooks do a private reading of the rough draft that "The Producers" was a slam-dunk hit.

"When we sent out word about a Mel Brooks musical," he recalls, "the interest was so great that we had to have a lottery for those who wanted to invest."

Needless to say, everyone got a handsome return on the investment.

"The Producers" went on to pick up 12 Tonys, the most for any musical in history. Currently, there are multiple touring companies of the show, and every one of them is an exact replica of the original, right down to the material of every shirt and skirt.

"With some shows, a touring company sometimes has to go out in a cheaper version," he says. "But not this one. We spent insane amounts of money to put out an absolutely first-class version of the show."

And though he calls his work risky business, Frankel has never been disappointed by the audience reaction — and box office receipts — of "The Producers."

Says Frankel: "The rhythms are Mel's rhythms from Brownsville. The music is an homage of the musicals of the '30s, and the humor is basically that of the tummler Mel was in the Catskills.

"But," he adds with the marketing savvy of a carnival barker, "you don't have to be Jewish to love the show."




"The Producers" plays 8 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays, through July 25, at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd., San Jose. Tickets: $50-$77. Information: (888) 455-7469 or (408) 453-7108; www.amtsj.org.