Brooks has chosen to set The Producers in 1959. The 1950s are considered to be the heyday of the Broadway musical. They were integral to American pop culture, the source of the music that dominated the top-ten lists on the radio just as rock and roll made its debut. Shows from the 1950s that still run in frequent revivals into the 2000s include Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, My Fair Lady, The King and I, and West Side Story. Composers of these musicals included such legends of the stage as Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, and the team of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Rogers and Hammerstein are credited with defining the modern Broadway musical with their 1943 show Oklahoma!: while there had been stage shows with musical numbers in them, Oklahoma!.....
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