Brad Musgrove, center, who danced in The Producers on Broadway, works at Theatre By The Sea with actors Nate Suggs, left, and Doug Trapp.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

Dancer Brad Musgrove had never choreographed a musical before. But he agreed to take on The Producers, which opens Wednesday at Theatre By The Sea, on one condition: that he be allowed to use the dance steps from the original Broadway production, choreography he knew cold.

“I said ‘sure,’ ” said Musgrove, who was dance captain for the Broadway run of the Mel Brooks megahit and played Carmen Ghia, the gay assistant of inept director Roger De Bris, for almost four years. “As long as I can do the Susan Stroman choreography, I said I’d do it. Being in the show for almost seven years, I hear that music and can think of only one step that goes with it.

“And it’s Tony Award-winning choreography. Anything I could come up with would pale by comparison. I wasn’t interested in reinventing the wheel.”

Stroman, of course, is something of a choreographic genius, the woman who went on to direct the 2005 film version of The Producers and to team up again with Brooks as the director and choreographer of his musical Young Frankenstein.

And being a Stroman show, said Musgrove, The Producers uses “prop-heavy” choreography, like the scene where a gaggle of little old ladies — prospective backers for the world’s worst musical — strut their stuff on stage using walkers. And as mousy accountant Leo Bloom sits in his office dreaming about becoming a big-time producer, gorgeous chorus girls pop out of filing cabinets.

“It’s a choreography-heavy show,” said Musgrove, who is based in New York.

It also requires dancers who can act, he said. When the ensemble is not dancing, members have to slip into roles, sometimes more than one in a single scene. There are instances, said Musgrove, when an actor walks across the stage, makes a quick costume change, then reappears as a second and third person.

Also, the men have to play old ladies, and the women have to play men in the audition scene for the musical within the musical, Springtime for Hitler.

“The show is difficult to cast in that way,” said Musgrove. “You have to look for incredible singers and dancers, but also actors who are able to create characters, and to go out there and live in this Mel Brooks world, which is not a normal world.

“The script and lyrics and songs that Mel wrote are so in-your-face and irreverent. And if you have an actor who is uncomfortable making fun of something, the comedy doesn’t play. The actors have to be willing to go over the top, and that allows the audience to laugh at something that in the real world might be politically incorrect, but in this fantasy world is okay.

“Mel is an equal opportunity offender. Everyone gets their moment.”

Musgrove was just 10 years old when he decided to become a dancer. His folks had taken him to a musical about showman Bob Fosse in his native Kansas City, Mo., and the next day he announced that he wanted to take dance lessons. He started out with jazz and tap, but then realized the importance of a classical foundation, and took up ballet.

Musgrove attended Oklahoma City University, where his classmate was singer-actress Kristin Chenoweth. But he left after two years to start working. The life span of a dancer is too short not to jump at opportunities, he said.

Now pushing 40, Musgrove is recuperating from a hip replacement that has pretty much spelled the end of his career as a dancer. He has just started a company that sells dance clothing, something he has been doing on the side for the past 15 years or so.

And he is taking on projects like this one at Theatre By The Sea. Musgrove said he got the Matunuck job through his friendship with producing artistic director Amiee Turner, who Musgrove danced with in Europe in a production of 42nd Street.

He spent about three years abroad before settling in New York in the early 1990s.

In New York, he had a job dancing in the musical revue Fosse when the chance to work on The Producers came up. He left to become dance captain and a swing, or understudy, for the ensemble.

“People thought I was nuts to sit backstage in The Producers,” he said. “But I said I can learn something about acting, about comedy. All I have to do is show up in a room with Mel Brooks, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick and I’ll be a better actor for that experience.”

As he rehearsed for the show, he got to work with Brooks on a daily basis.

“He was very hands-on,” said Musgrove. “He was very fast and quick. If a joke didn’t work, in 10 minutes he’d have another page, another bit.”

The Producers won a record-breaking dozen Tony Awards when it opened in 2001. Like the 1968 Mel Brooks film of the same name, the show is about a couple of theatrical producers who realize they can make more money putting on a flop than a hit; they figure they can sell the show to investors, then pocket the money when it fails.

But things don’t turn out as planned.

This is Musgrove’s first visit to Rhode Island. And he is impressed with the theater.

During auditions in New York, he said he kept hearing Theatre By The Sea being referred to as a “barn,” which he took to mean a cavernous theater.

“When I got here, I was a little shocked to find out that it literally is a barn. But I was immediately overwhelmed by the charm of the place. And I was quite amazed at the space they do have.”

Musgrove said there is plenty of room on stage for the dance numbers, and more space in the wings than at the St. James Theater, in New York, where The Producers opened. There, cast members had to climb through the set to get downstage, to open doors and walk around desks.

Luckily, Jerome Vivona, who is directing the show, has worked at Matunuck in the past (he directed Guys and Dolls, West Side Story and Sweet Charity there) and knows the space well, said Musgrove.

“He knows the limitations. I would have come in saying, ‘Why can’t we have a fountain in the middle of the stage?’ ”

Although Musgrove knows all the moves in The Producers, he said he is not used to putting together a show so quickly. On Broadway, he had about five weeks to rehearse, not the 10 days in Matunuck. But he has found cast members to be quick studies.

“I’m amazed at how quick they are,” he said, “and their energy level.”

Musgrove said he works all day with the dancers, staring at about 10 in the morning. But when he goes home exhausted at 6, the ensemble heads for the theater for performances of Evita, the current show. Then, at around 11 at night, the dancers go over the material they learned from Musgrove, so they will be prepared for the next day’s rehearsal.

Musgrove said the Broadway run of The Producers had just a couple more people in the cast than the line-up in Matunuck.

“I’m hoping the audience gets a close facsimile to the Broadway show. That certainly is my intent.”

The Producers opens in previews Wednesday at Theatre By The Sea, 364 Card’s Pond Rd., Matunuck, and runs through Aug. 31. Tickets are $35 for the Wednesday and Thursday performances, and $39-$49 for all other shows. Call (401) 782-8587

cgray@projo.com