Mel Brook's musical The Producers, whose centerpiece is the spoof musical Springtime For Hitler, is getting ready to storm Berlin having already conquered Broadway.

The phenomenally successful stage musical, based on Brooks' 1968 film and currently starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, is expected to reach Berlin in 2004, a year after its anticipated arrival in the West End.

Given that swastikas and other Nazi paraphernalia are banned in real life in today's Germany, the display of over-the-top Nazi ichnography on show during Springtime For Hitler will no doubt be all the more shocking - and effective. (It won't hurt the box office, either.)

The Producers has been a smash hit since opening at the St. James Theatre on Broadway in spring 2001, after a tryout in Chicago. The show won a record amount a Tonys at last years awards ceremony.

Toronto producers Ed and David Mirvish announced Feb. 20 that The Producers would have its Canadian premiere at the Mirvishes' Canon Theatre in Toronto in spring 2003, making the staging the fourth North American production, and the third outside New York City.

By spring 2003, the Tony Award-winning smash musical by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, staged by Susan Stroman, will have four concurrent productions: On Broadway, on a national tour, on the West Coast and in Toronto. A source in the Toronto theatre community said David Mirvish announced Toronto as the "point of origin" for the production, making this the third national company.