BANKENSTEIN: MEL BROOKS' MONSTER MILLIONS MAY SET RECORDS- Page 2

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 5:53pm

I hope he uses his money to buy back the Mark Hellinger from the Times Square Church.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 5:55pm

That would certainly be wonderful.

[MarkRascati]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 6:05pm

I wouldn't call what Brooks does "Composing"

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 6:19pm

Brooks certainly is a business man. but all this makes me wonder if he actually doesn't have a lot of faith in the show. rehearsals are in full swing, arent't they? and they had a lot of casting issues (Mullaly instead of Chenoweth, plus the super-long search for a male lead).

I dunno, I'm admitteddly kind of worried for this show.

Brooks ain't buying back no theatres.

[tourboi]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 6:27pm

He's not a composer by definition. He hums a tune and hires Glen Kelly, or someone of that rank (Mr. Kelly's work is quite good on every show he's been a part of, I might add) to "flesh out" and actually write the music. Then takes credit for doing it all and credits those who did the real work with lesser titles. PRODUCERS, IMO should be billed in the very least as "Music by Mel Brooks and Glen Kelly".

[nealb1]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 7:50pm

It's his show. How is that a bad thing.....making money on your own show?

That's very smart of people to have all aspects of the money pool.......that shows how smart a business person they are.

How is Mel Brooks making money, on the show that he wrote, a bad thing? What am I missing here?

[Rotel1026]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 9:10pm

I just recently watched this for the first time and in the "making of", it mentions that this was originally Gene Wilder's screenplay and Mel Brooks was hired as the director and helped him flesh out the screenplay. So anyone know what, if any, role Gene Wilder had in making this a stage musical?

[The Boy From Ohio]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 9:43pm

Money makes the world go around, the world go around...

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 9:49pm

Wilder had no role in making the musical, but I'm sure he's an uncredited royalty recipient.

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 10:19pm

I'd love to know how many actual broadway composers do all of the "grunt" work of writing out the full scores and such? The answer I bet would be VERY few of them.

[DG]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 10:20pm

Jealousy is a terrible, terrible thing.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 10:35pm

I have a feeling that people are building this us so much that the real thing is going to be a terrible disappointment.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:03pm

Umgeoboy, while many composers do not write their own incidental or dance music, or often recycle music from other shows or from their trunk, and most have someone else orchestrate their music, most Broadway composers have been capable of recording their own music on paper (Irving Berlin is a notable exception). It's not really grunt work. It's composing.

It's kind of like a novelist hiring someone to type... or spell words, or compose sentences.

Updated On: 8/4/07 at 11:03 PM

[DG]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:15pm

This thing that people are jumping all over Mel for (concerning 'composing') has earned John Barry four Oscars for film score 'composition'.

Welcome to the real world.

If Glen Kelly wants his name recognized, let him compose a score of his own. Meanwhile, it's Mel's name that sells tickets.

And for the record, the awareness and iconic status of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN the movie is WAY more than THE PRODUCERS ever was - this is going to go through the roof.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:19pm

DG, I can't say I disagree. They've marketed Young Frankenstein so much that people will pays hundreds to go see it even if it's the worst thing to ever hit Broadway. Take High School Musical, for example. Was it that great of a movie? Not really. But they marketed it the right way, and now it's virtually impossible to say you've never seen it or at least heard about it.

[DG]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:22pm

Considering who the majority of BWay tickets are sold to these days, this is as close to a sure thing as I can imagine.

[bertandrew2]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:29pm

Why is everyone so mean-spirited in here? You guys HATE when something is successful---or has the potential for success. It drives me crazy. Then someone has to go drag Disney into this! Oh man...just enjoy! Stop hating EVERYTHING!

Lets pretend this was Sondhein's Young Frankenstein with Lupone as the monster.
Then maybe there would be YF love threads!

Jeeze!!!!

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:33pm

No one hates it because it has the potential to be sucessful, bert.

People I think just don't like Brooks very much for whatever reason, and I guess people aren't happy about his top ticket price.

And I don't know why anyone would wish failure on anyone, but whatever...

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:37pm

I'm not wishing failure on anybody and I'm not saying that Young Frankenstein's gonna flop, because that's ridiculously unlikely, I'm just pointing out that it's all about marketing. Sorry if you took my comment the wrong way.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:38pm

No, I was talking about other comments in the thread, not yours Glinda.

[DG]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:38pm

"Sondhein's Young Frankenstein with Lupone as the monster."

That brings SO MANY vivid mental images - thanks!

[Tkt2Ride]

Posted: 8/4/07 at 11:52pm

Lupone would sell even more tickets! I think since there were some musical numbers originally in YF and the fact that Mel was originally involved is building the hype up. It has a great cast, a potentially wicked set, lot's of money being poured into it, lots of reasons to expect this to succeed.

Timing, if they get it all up for the Haunted Season! Only the score could kill it from what I can see. We know with this talent, they will make the best of it. If Sutton wasn't involved, I doubt I would be so excited to see it live.

Mel does have a big ego, at least he is taking his profits and pouring it back into the Theatre, so we could be a little appreciative for that. New jobs, more reasons to come visit New York.

I do believe Mel should share the composing rights if someone helped him do the work. Maybe Kelly didn't want the press? Some people are like that. I don't know how Mel is about these kinds of things and paying for printing fees?

If he doesn't share the wealth, I would be surprised if the staff didn't bark if it makes a mint. That is what keeps Lawyers sitting in the aisles. ;P

[jv92]

Posted: 8/5/07 at 12:04am

"I wouldn't call what Brooks does "Composing""

Absolutley. It's more like...
Doo, doo, da. Dee, da, dee. Okay Glen, make that sound good!

[justafan2]

Posted: 8/5/07 at 11:46am

A good show will sell itself---word of mouth travels VERY fast. Jersey Boys is a good example----very little advance word (I just rec'd one of those postcards)--but once it hit the stage---the demand became incredible. (and then so did the prices)

[Not Barker, Todd.]

Posted: 8/5/07 at 2:13pm

We have no buzz on the actual SHOW yet and if it did flop due to it being bad, it would not be the first green giant to fall.