“We started to work [on ‘The Producers’ on Broadway] and it was shortly after that, sadly, that my husband [director Mike Okrent] became ill with leukemia ... and we lost him. [She begins to break down.] Sorry.

”He wanted me to go on as the director and choreographer. I didn't think I could do it just because how I was feeling. But Mel said, ‘Stro, you will cry in the morning and you will cry in the evening. You’ll cry before you see me and you‘ll cry after you leave. But you will laugh all during the day.’

“And it saved me. It really did.”

— Susan Stroman, director and producer of the Broadway musical “The Producers,” talking about Mel Brooks for the PBS American Masters documentary, “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise,” which aired Monday night.