" This is a terrific show. The word of mouth from the previews is going to be wonderful. People are going to want to go back and show it to their cousins. This is not hype. Warn people: get in early and get a ticket. "

So says Mel Brooks, on the phone from his office in Los Angeles, about the upcoming three-month run at the Colonial Theatre of his own Broadway musical, The Producers. Yeah, Brooks sounds a bit like Max Bialystock, the perpetually promoting producer in the show. But a little immodesty is allowed. While Bialystock put up stinker after stinker financed by helpless old ladies, The Producers has won nearly every award in sight, including a record 12 Tonys, a record 11 Drama Desk Awards, two Grammys, and, I believe, the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

For the one reader who doesn’t know, the musical is based on Brooks’s 1968 movie The Producers, about the blustery Bialystock and timid accountant Leo Bloom’s scheme to produce a Broadway show called Springtime for Hitler that will flop after one night, allowing the producers to take off with the leftover investments. The only problem: the show turns out to be a big hit.

The movie, starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, never did much at the box office, (though it’s since become a cult favorite). But after being convinced by David Geffen to adapt the movie into a musical, Brooks hooked up with veteran director and choreographer Susan Stroman, known affectionately by Brooks and others as Stro, and created a bawdy show-biz satire that’s a throwback to old Broadway musical comedies. How well did it go over? Reviewing the The Producers after it opened in April 2001 at the St. James Theatre, New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote, " It is, to put it simply, the real thing: a big Broadway book musical that is so ecstatically drunk on its powers to entertain that it leaves you delirious, too. "

The Boston run won’t feature any big movie or TV names, like Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, who starred on Broadway, or Martin Short and Jason Alexander, who are in the Los Angeles production. Still, Brooks is effusive in his praise for the cast, beginning with Brad Oscar, who, says Brooks, " saved the day " when he filled in, first just as a temporary fix, as Bialystock after Lane’s contract was up.

" I just wandered into the St. James to see how we were doing, " says Brooks. " Brad Oscar had the audience in the palm of his hand. He was a dream Bialystock. So I said to Stro, ‘Why don’t we just sign him as our Broadway star?’ And we did, and he’s never let us down. "

Brooks runs down the rest of the Boston cast, showering accolades on everyone, but let’s skip to the good part, where he praises Ida Leigh Curtis, who plays the Swedish secretary/ " actress " Ulla, in typical Brooksian fashion. " She is so gorgeous and so talented, " says Brooks. " She’s a gift from the gods, feminine delectability. If I weren’t happily married, believe me, I would go to Buffalo with Ida Leigh Curtis. "

With the show touring, and the New York run still going strong, The Producers may soon come full circle, says Brooks, with Universal " hot on our heels " to make a film version of the musical. Meanwhile, Brooks and Co. are now considering adapting either Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, both from 1974, for the stage.

Brooks will turn 77 a week and half into the Boston run of The Producers, and unlike Woody Allen, Jim Carrey, and other comedic writers and performers out to try something different or perhaps prove themselves as " serious artists, " he has never tried to write anything that wasn’t funny.

" Comedy is what I was born to do, " says Brooks. " It’s a hard job, and I can do it. A lot of people can write drama. [The audience] just has to sit there and pay attention, and you can say, ‘I’m doing well, right?’ Long Day’s Journey into Night — how do you know if it’s good or bad? I’d like to make that into a musical comedy. "

How about Osama bin Laden and al–Qaeda? Could Brooks envision someone creating a Broadway musical mocking terrorists 50 years down the line?

" Why not? It wouldn’t take 50 years, " he says. " Some of the guys on Saturday Night Live could get right on it. " Brooks then adds, affectionately, " I mean, they have no shame. My son Max Brooks is one of their writers, so he might do it. "

The Producers plays at the Colonial Theatre June 17 through September 13. Tickets are available at the box office, 106 Boylston Street, or call (617) 931-2787.