大概是一年多前吧，我還在嘆自己沒機會看原班人馬版的The Producers，但那時Nathan和Matthew等人都語帶保留，於是我懷著卑微的希望想「他們應該哪天想到了，又會再回來」。
今天一看報紙，是啊，他們真的要回來了。St. James又要被擠爆了。
Oh, New York, New York.
(以下新聞竊自紐約時報)
November 5, 2003
Original Stars Returning to 'Producers,' at a Price
By JESSE McKINLEY
Let the schmoozing, begging and finagling begin. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are returning to "The Producers."
After months of diminishing sales, the producers of "The Producers" have booked Mr. Lane and Mr. Broderick, the show's original stars, for 14 weeks beginning Dec. 30 at the St. James Theater.
Tickets for their return, which had been rumored for months, go on sale on Nov. 16, but phone calls from people seeking tickets began flooding the show's publicity agency, Barlow-Hartman, as soon as the notice went out yesterday morning.
The show's producers want to make the most of the stars' return. The show's regular tickets cost $30 to $100, and the producers are also expected to sell nearly a hundred $480 tickets in the best rows of the orchestra for each performance through Broadway Inner Circle.
With the new $480 tickets, the show is likely to post the highest box office take on Broadway, as much as $1.3 million a week. And a special New Year's Eve performance may also set a record; prime orchestra seats will be $1,500, including an after-show Champagne dinner in the lobby of the Minskoff Theater overlooking Times Square. (Plain tickets for that night are $150 to $600.)
The staggering prices reflect what the show's producers call a fanatical desire to see Mr. Lane and Mr. Broderick play Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, two disreputable producers who try to make a mint by selling a thousand percent of a sure-fire flop and stealing their investors' money when it goes under.
The show, based on Mel Brooks's 1968 film, opened to rave reviews in April 2001 and won 12 Tony Awards, a record. Mr. Lane and Mr. Broderick were nominated for their performances (Mr. Lane won) and helped inspire a yearlong ticket frenzy before leaving the show in March 2002. The show, which was capitalized at $10.5 million, recouped its investment in a little over seven months, one of the shortest times in Broadway history.
Since then, however, lesser known actors have had the roles, and over the last year the box office has declined about 20 percent. Last week the show played to just 69 percent of capacity at the 1,706-seat St. James, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers, a trade group.
That decline is expected to be reversed when Mr. Broderick and Mr. Lane return, though they are not coming cheap. They are reportedly being paid $100,000 a week each.
For all that, Mr. Lane and Mr. Broderick will play only 112 performances; their last show is scheduled for April 4.
Photo: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick star in The Producers.
文章定位：
