Jeffrey, Gregory Sherman on The Boys: Interview
Disney Film Profiles Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh Songwriters
Aug 21, 2009 Dominic von Riedemann
In 2002, cousins Jeffrey and Gregory Sherman met for the first time, despite having grown up within 6 blocks of each other. Their fathers were Robert and Richard Sherman – the legendary songwriting team The Sherman Brothers – who wrote classic tunes like "It's a Small World After All," "Just a Spoonful of Sugar (Makes the Medicine Go Down," and the Oscar-winning "Chim Chim Cher-ee."
However, despite writing so many classic family-oriented tunes, the Sherman brothers could barely stand being in the same room with each other, which caused a 40-year rift in the family. In order to heal that rift, Jeff and Greg wrote and directed The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story, opening August 21st.
In Part #1 of this exclusive interview, Jeff and Greg discuss how they reunited, and how they pitched the idea for their documentary to Disney executives.
Where did you get the idea for The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story?
Jeffrey Sherman: “We grew up 6 blocks apart, as it says in the movie, and our dads worked together for over 60 years. But we really didn’t meet each other until 2002.”
Gregory Sherman: “We knew of each other but we knew there was a line we knew not to cross in terms of family dynamics, even though our dads worked together every day on all this happy family entertainment music.
“In 2002, we really discussed that for the first time ever as adults, and we realized there was a story there.”
What brought this meeting on?
Jeff: “It was the opening of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stage play in London’s West End. We went there and, as usual, his family sat to the left of the theatre, and mine sat to the right. Afterward, there was this after-party, and we happened to see each other and we went ‘What’s this all about? Why are we this separated family?’ And we talked all night.
“A couple of months later, somebody had approached him and me about doing a scripted movie about the Sherman Brothers. Thankfully, he called me and said, ‘We should have a meeting with this person.’
Greg: “And it was really the 2nd time we had been in a room together as adults, and it just became readily apparent that we could finish each other’s sentences like our dads did, we knew the same stories, we had similar thoughts on how it could be told, and the more we talked to this person, who thought that we were brothers and not cousins, we decided this is something we should do ourselves.”
Now, just to clarify: Greg, you are–
Greg: “Richard’s son.”
Jeff: “And I’m Rob’s son.”
What was the next step after that?
Jeff: “We wrote up a treatment, and we tried to sell it as a scripted biopic but we found that people didn’t relate the Sherman brothers as a name with all this work that everybody knew: Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book. And we were having trouble figuring out what we had to do.
“So we were sitting together on Greg’s birthday, and Mary Poppins was about to open on Broadway, and we got the idea to get 2 camera crews and follow them – because they hadn’t seen each other for a couple of years by this point – and see what the reaction was when they met up at the end of this blue carpet event.”
Greg: “But it was interesting because, no matter what, this was footage that we would want to have. My uncle was living in London, my dad was in LA, and they were coming back to New York, where they started from, and now they’re coming back home with the most triumphant musical they’d ever written. And it felt like a really monumental moment, so we funded it ourselves, put it up on camera, and took it to Disney Studios. Everything else fell into place from there.
“I think part of it was, there was a visceral reaction to hearing the music, and feeling those feelings you had when you first heard the music. And that was what allowed us to go forward with the project."
Pitching scripts in Hollywood, even for documentaries, seems to have a nightmare reputation (both grin knowingly). How was your experience dealing with Disney?
Jeff: “They left us alone completely.”
Greg: “It was an absolute dream. I can’t imagine an easier situation. We didn’t just do a pitch: we actually showed them, in 20 minutes, what the basic idea was. It was a work in progress: we had gotten a few interviews, we had shown what the storyline would be in a very condensed version, and they were smart enough to know – if we had a full budget – where we would go with it.”
Jeff: “We had the advantage too that we had shown the presentation to 2 people that we had interviewed: Tom Schumacher, who was the head of Disney Theatrical in New York, and to Roy E. Disney, who was Roy E. Disney! (laughs) And they both loved it; they both called Disney chairman Dick Cook and told him about it. So Dick called us in and we showed it to him and, as the lights were coming up, he said, 'Let’s do this.'"
Greg: “And basically left us alone. Gave us a budget, said, “Stick to the budget and go forth and prosper.”
(In Part #2 of this exclusive interview, Jeff and Greg Sherman bluntly assess their legendary fathers, and discuss making this film.)
Poster for The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story
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