Instyle Magazine

The Producers, April 23, 2001

Opening night of The Producers

It was Springtime for Hit… err… springtime for a hit show in N.Y.C. as Gotham's A-list turned out for the April 19 Broadway opening night of Mel Brooks's musical comedy The Producers. Filling the seats of the St. James Theatre, to see actors Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, were stars such as Sarah Jessica Parker (aka, Mrs. Broderick), Demi Moore, Aaron Eckhart, Jill Goodacre, Joan Allen, and Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan. Afterwards, exiting audience members spewed enthusiasms on their way to the party a few blocks away. "It was awesome," exclaimed Harry Connick Jr. "Very funny," said Alec Baldwin, "it will probably run five years."

Though no dancing Hitler was in sight, the post-show bash riffed on the show's setting: Broadway 1959. Coordinated by Tobak-Dantchik Events and Promotions, Manhattan's Roseland would be a paradise for Max Bialystock-the producer played by Nathan Lane. Amid the vintage theater posters were buffets: deli food, beef stroganoff and a hot dog cart on the ground floor; Chinese upstairs. And playing in front of bubbling six-foot-tall champagne glasses, a big-band orchestra. Matthew Broderick has had Broadway opening nights before. But this one … "It's a little bigger," the actor said, modestly. Actually, The Producers-to invoke the name of another one of Broderick's credits-has stormed Broadway like Godzilla.

-Rob Medich