Quickly! Flash an image of David Hasselhoff in your mind. You're thinking of a 'Baywatch' hunk-of-a-lifeguard in a red swimsuit surrounded on the beach by such curvy creatures such as Pamela Anderson and Donna D'Ericco. You're not seeing David tottering on high heels, and clad in a dress playing a Nazi, right?!? Well, that's exactly what he'll be doing when the hysterically funny Mel Brook's Broadway musical, 'The Producers' opens here at the Paris for previews (just $60 a ticket for locals for seven shows) next Wednesday, Jan. 31, with the gala red carpet celebrity-studded opening night set for February 9. Just in case you don't know, the show is based on the 1968 hit movie and tells the story of a con-man producer raising $2 million for a show costing only $100,000 and guaranteed to flop! With him pocketing the balance. 
Both Brad Oscar and Larry Raben play the roles of Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom respectively that they played on Broadway after Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane launched the show and gorgeous Broadway veteran Leigh Zimmerman reprises sultry Swedish secretary Ulla. I met up with 6' 4" David at the Paris where he was quickly mobbed by frenzied fans who still go crazy for the 54-year-old wherever he goes. The former 'Knight Rider' star and currently judge on 'America's Got Talent' took time out from rehearsals to talk exclusively with Luxe Life and then his teenage daughters Taylor Ann, 16 and 14-year-old Hayley insisted he take them to see their hero Justin Timberlake. Here's our candid conversation:
RL: Did you ever see 'The Producers' when it was on Broadway, before you ever thought about getting involved with it for Vegas?
DH: Absolutely; six years ago in the first month of its run. I was doing 'Jekyll and Hyde' on Broadway when they were developing it. In fact, the guy who is playing our lead, Brad Oscar, played the Bishop in 'Jekyll and Hyde' with me and he was actually leaving to understudy Nathan Lane. I was at 'The Producers' in the first two or three weeks in production. I had just left 'Jekyll and Hyde' when it opened. I liked it very much. I am such a Mel Brooks fan that I get his humor. I can laugh my butt off and he has thrown everything in this and he just keeps coming at you with ridiculous stuff. I thoroughly loved it. It is one of the funniest musicals I have ever seen. It is just great and I saw it again about three or four weeks ago when I was trying on the dress and it is actually better the second time around.
RL: So flash back to that first visit. Did you ever think sitting in the audience that one day you would be in the show?
DH: Never, ever, ever occurred to me. In fact, when the casting people called and they saidthat Mel Brooks called and wants you to be in 'The Producers.' I said which role? They said the Nazi and I said I think the part with the dress is what I would like to play if they are going to give me a part. They said that is the part they wanted you to play but we thought you wouldn't want to wear a dress and I said I don't want to dress up as Nazi guy. I want the gig in the dress that is the funniest part. Then when I went back, I didn't even know that they sang Springtime for Hitler, I just knew that Mel Brooks name was connected to it, and that Mel Brooks actually knew who I was, was very humbling to me and I could not believe it. When I met him, I kept saying are you sure that you have the right guy? He kept saying yes, he was very sweet and respectful and he had seen 'Jekyll and Hyde' on HBO and 'America's Got Talent' because I kept asking him where he knew me.
We are 10 days into rehearsals so right now it is like we are putting the polishing on and we are really starting to nail everything down, so it is going great. It was basically about lungs and legs. My legs were killing me in the high heels and I was trying to get my wind back. I just started to get it back a few days ago. I had no idea that there was so much dancing and singing. I know I can sing, and I know I can do comedy, but I am not a dancer. I am going oh my god, I can't sing now because you have me running around out of breath so I am trying to pace myself. It is like opening day of football camp. You have to learn the plays and get your wind back.
RL: Physically, how long are you staying in the gym to straighten the leg muscles out after your five inch heels?
DH: Someone asked me the best part of the show and I said where I take off my heels. It is great. I don't know how women walk around in those things all day long. No wonder they are always late and cranky. It takes a lot of work putting all that crap on. I work out an hour in the morning and then I do the steam. I do my warm ups in the steam. People find it a little disconcerting that a man in a towel is making funny noises and it has helped a lot. Then I come back and I take a super hot bath because I am 54 years old, and I am running around like I am 30 out there. At the end of the day I can hardly walk so I come home and just forget it.
RL: You are not in heels the entire time are you?
DH: No. I am in them for two songs, and then I am back to playing the flamboyant director, then I play Hitler. My German fans are either going to love me or dessert me. It is going to be a real fun thing to see them in the audience. 100% they will be here. They will have banners in the audience. They follow me everywhere. They followed me to London, they came to every television show I have ever done, and they come to every hotel I am at. They know I am here. They will be in the audience with banners. I think that is why they hired me, it is such an international city and everybody knows Hasselhoff. I am glad to be here and the people treat me with the utmost respect, the Paris, the Mel Brooks Company. There are no egos in this company. It really is great.
RL: What is the buzz between the cast on the show and it being here in Vegas?
DH: The buzz is that I told everybody that is says starring David Hasselhoff, but clearly we are all the stars. It really stars Brad Oscar and Larry Raven. I am the icing on the cake. I am the draw. I am going to be funny, I promise you guys I will get my lungs together and they will have to spoon feed me. Brad has done 1,100 shows, there are 3 of us that are new, and they are just so supportive, so complimentary of me and they are so excited that I am in the show. They don't tell me that, they tell other people that. I am a team player, but the buzz is you know hey bringing a Broadway show to Vegas is a gamble, but it is very, very funny and the fact that it is cut down to an hour and a half is good. It rocks!
RL: Are you still laughing as you go through the material?
DH: We are laughing at rehearsals. That is really great and now it is kind of like that we are all laughing ion rehearsals and we are moving to the theater and the theater is huge, it is very wide. It is very different than a Broadway theater so there are some things we have to work out. The girls are all six footers and the guys are all good-looking and the two leads are great. Carmen is great and Lee Zimmerman is just staggering beautiful and is like 6 ft. tall and married to Dominic Allen who used to be married to Shirley? And is the lead singer of Foreigner. So we have a great cast. They hand picked it for Vegas and I think it has a really great shot of making it here.
RL: You've moved to Vegas. Have you found a home here yet?
DH: No, I am looking, I am in the Paris hotel right now because it is accessible to the gym, the spa, the steam, but I am getting hotel fever. I want my own home. But daytime I can run my other ventures from here. I have a clothing line and those now infamous tee shirts "Don't Hassle the Hoff" took off. I am even at Urban Outfitters. I have a whole new line. It's all a long way from 'Baywatch,' 'Knight Rider' and pop records in Germany. The last thing that I did which did really well was 'Click' with Adam Sandler and I got to show that I could hold my own on the big screen and Simon Cowell is a great buddy so I am going back to 'America's Got Talent.' In the end I enjoyed it. At first I was going I cannot get through all of their whacked out acts I was going crazy and I ended up just enjoying it and it brought me a lot of attention. I am going to be doing that the same time I am doing the show. I am going to fly back and forth between LA for about 2-3 weeks, it won't be bad. Then I am going to come back to the show and I have my own musical developed and written. I am also working on an album with Frank Wildhorn, he did 'Jekyll and Hyde' and was married to Linda Eder and they did some beautiful gigantic ballads and I am leaning towards doing an Il Divo magnificent record with an orchestra and shoot it in a castle, playing up the camp. I want to do something a little more serious, but on the other hand the musical is so funny and so ridiculous. It is so tongue and cheek. We make so much fun of 'Baywatch' and 'Knight Rider' in the show.
RL: So what do you think of Vegas?
DH: You know what, I haven't gone out. I thought when I got here it has turned into Disneyland. There is just so much going on here. It never seemed to be this active back when we used to party here. It just looks like a combo of Disneyland and Times Square. I am starting to enjoy it and now I have gone through a rough year and I am recently single and I am wondering how do I date again and I am going well I came to the right town. What I am doing now is I am staying down, getting my chops together and once the show is up and running I will start going out. I mean the NBA is coming here and that is fantastic. Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks is one of my biggest fans and there was a whole thing about the press asking him 'what do you do to calm yourself down before free throws,' he has a 97% average, and he goes I sing David Hasselhoff songs -- Looking for Freedom! Suddenly people were holding my face up all over the NBA. They were chanting Hasselhoff and my dad calls me and goes are you watching this and I go dad it is a strange world. They were chanting Hasselhoff, a name that we got so much crap for in high school. Now it's recognized all over the world."
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