The show’s creators have been delighted so far with Lane’s speedy progress. “Nathan is terrific in the role,” UK producer David Ian told Playbill On-Line. “He also works very well with his co-star Lee Evans. They were together in the movie 'Mouse Hunt,' so they know each other and are friends.” Evans was consulted on the move to replace Dreyfuss with Lane.

In advance of the previews, co-writer (and Annie scribe) Tom Meehan spoke to Playbill On-Line about his long collaboration with Mel Brooks — as well as The Producers, the pair have worked together on the films “To Be Or Not To Be” and “Spaceballs” and are currently writing a musical from Brooks’ movie “Young Frankenstein”: “Mel is wonderful, a fountain of humor, always funny and charming. I’ve worked out a relationship with him that is something like a marriage. We sit, he talks a lot and paces the room. He rarely writes anything down. I listen to him and write. Most of my job is to say, ‘No.’ He’ll come up with ten ideas, and for nine of them I’ll tell him, ‘No, you’re Mel Brooks, you can do better than that.’ Then he goes, ‘You’ll like this one,' and I know idea number ten will be great. I’ve worked with him for so long, I can even write Brooksian now. Some lines in the show sound pure Mel Brooks, but they’re mine!”

Meehan explained how he pointed out to Brooks some of the rules of musical theatre. “The film already had the feel of a musical — it had a big production number. But it needed structural work,” he said. “The film starts in an office with two men. I told Mel, ‘We have to put a musical stamp on it right from the beginning.’ So we opened it on the night of Max’s latest fiasco. He sings a lead song about who he is and where he’s been and what he wants right at the start. And that’s a very important book number. It moves us into the story, as does the defining ‘I want’ number that soon follows, Bloom’s ‘I Want To Be a Producer.’”

While it is Lane, who won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Max, who will open in the show at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on Nov. 9, it is not yet known who will follow him. He can’t extend because he is scheduled to shoot the film version of the show alongside Matthew Broderick and Nicole Kidman.

Other London cast members include Leigh Zimmerman as Ulla, Nicolas Colicos as Franz Liebkind, James Dreyfus as Carmen Ghia and Conleth Hill as Roger De Bris. Susan Stroman directs.

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