The London Theatre Review: The Producers
By Ross
It was the first time I’d ever been to Menier Chocolate Factory theatre in London, England, if you can believe it, and it was also the first time I’d ever seen The Producers – the Musical live on stage. I’ve seen the original 1967 American film written and directed by Mel Brooks (“Young Frankenstein” – the movie and the Broadway musical), which starred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, and also the 2005 movie version of the 2001 stage musical. That film version, based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical which in turn was based on Brooks’ cult film of the same name, was directed by Susan Stroman, written by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, and starred its Broadway stars Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Gary Beach, and Roger Bart, joined by Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, and Jon Lovitz. I’m told it wasn’t a financial success and lost a lot of its pleasurable fun in that stage to screen transfer. So I was feeling pretty blessed to see it, for the first time, live on stage at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a theatre that has transferred so many deliciously well-revived musicals to the West End and Broadway.
The idea is still a ridiculously delightful and funny notion. A famed, or infamous, depending on your vantage point, producer by the name of Max Bialystock, portrayed diabolically delicious by Andy Nyman (West End/Broadway’s Hangman), learns from his new friend and future producing partner, the accountant Leo Bloom, played engagingly by Marc Antolin (Donmar’s A Band’s Visit), that he could make even more money if the musical they staged was a sure-fired flop. It seems Bialystock, who used to be the King of Broadway, is now famous for staging flops based on the wonderfully fun opening scene of ‘Funny Boys‘, a new musical adaptation of Hamlet that leads us into the pretty solidly brilliant musical, The Producers. So the premise makes perfect sense; to bring to the stage the worst musical ever written, betting their financial success on its immediate brutal demise on opening night. It feels like a solid crafty scheme. And if anyone can write that “What a disaster!” formula for success most hilariously, it’s gotta be Mel Brooks.
“Let’s assume you were a dishonest man,” Bloom states, quite appropriately to Bialystock, and as directed with effervescent fun and joy, Patrick Marber (West End/Broadway’s Leopoldstadt) fills the staged revival with electricity and joyfully sharp playfulness. The show soars on Bloom’s captivating grin, and Bialystock’s mischievous one, flaunting ways of giving you big sparkle and delight on that slim Menier stage, designed inventively by Scott Pask (Broadway’s Shucked), with solid lighting by Richard Howell (West End’s Dr. Semmelweis) and sound design by Autograph’s Niamh Gaffney & Terry Jardine. With vigorously delightful and inventive choreography by Lorin Latarro (Broadway’s Once Upon a Mattress), The Producers dives in daringly, throwing so much controlled ridiculousness expertly at us at every turn. “We Can Do It” is the motto of these two characters, and this musical, which follows fabulously and faithfully along the hilariously arranged book by Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan (Hairspray) with hilarious well-crafted music and lyrics by Mel Brooks.
It’s pure delight from beginning to end, watching the two leads, magnificently embodied by hilariously framed Nyman and the adorably adorable Antolin, formulate, finagle, and finance, with the help of a slew of older female admirers of Bialystock working those new hips with feisty joy, to bring their new musical-within-an-epically-funny musical, “Springtime for Hitler” to satiric life. “It’s practically a love letter to Hitler,” says the excited and sure-of-himself Bialystock with the utmost greedy glee. The newly discovered horrific play, written by the disturbingly delightful Nazi sympathizer, Franz Liebkind, and played marvelously by the very funny Harry Morrison (Chocolate Factory’s The Third Man), is as diabolical as it is comic gold, in the right (or wrong) hands, and as the cast and crew of this new sure-to-be-a-disaster new musical are pulling it all together, with the help of the campy stage directed Roger De Bris, played meticulously funny by Trevor Ashely (Australia’s Les Misérables), and his dutifully assistant Carmen Ghia, portrayed glittery and gloriously by Raj Ghatak (NT’s The Father and the Assassin), the framing is reformed as perfect as one could ever hope for, and delivered in near perfect fabulousness.
The Producers is the perfect mix of silicious scammy silliness, and with the unsurprising seated standing-ovation casting of the forever fabulous Ulla, played gorgeously by Joanna Woodward (West End’s The Time Traveller’s Wife), as both the show-within-a-show’s star and the most appealing office assistant possible, the show is primed and ridiculously ready for a successful demolition. Now all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the “good luck” ride to financial destruction. And disaster truly does strike on opening night, but not in the way these two schemers planned.
The cast and crew, winningly costumed by Paul Farnsworth (West End’s Passion), find their mark and deliver with an abundance of humor and hilarity at every turn, even when almost upstaged by a chorus line of puppet pigeons singing and dancing alongside Morrison’s lederhosen-clad Franz. It’s as crassly cliche as can be, thankfully, and brought to new heights of comic genius when Ashley’s over-the-top camp director fills in at the last minute in the role of the Führer on opening night, becoming almost immediately the praised star of the now-hit new musical on Menier‘s version of Broadway.
It’s pretty solidly genius, this production, with all the show-within-a-show ingredients of what should be a Broadway disaster coming together so perfectly and hilariously. The ensemble of talent: Charis Alexandra, Nolan Edwards, Michael Franks, Matt Gillett, Leah Harris, Esme Kennedy, Alex Lodge, Kelsie-Rae Marshall, Chloe Saunders, Jermaine Woods, Hana Ichijo, and Josh Kiernan, double down in their deliciousness, mining for comedic gold at every old lady exchange and chorus line unwrapping.
It feels bigger than we could ever imagine on that slim stage, and bolder and funnier than any of us could have hoped for, from the optimistic and charming “I Wanna Be a Producer” sung gloriously by Antolin’s Leo and a chorus of showgirls and accountants, to the epitome of bad taste fabulousness of the high-kicking “Springtime in Hitler” lineup. “Where Did We Go Right?” Max & Leo asks, and maybe we do too, as this revival of The Producers stormtroopers the Menier Chocolate Factory stage, delivering some gorgeously deadpan humor as deliciously as can be. Is the West End and Broadway the next few obvious stops? All I can say is, “Don’t be stupid, be a smartie,” and move it up and along so many more can enjoy this irresistible celebration of humorous absurdity and theatrical golden glory.
