Producing a Great Night
(Gah I'm no good at wittily punned review headlines.)
I came to the Producers musical pretty much open-minded. I'd seen the film and enjoyed it's infamous "Springtime for Hitler" number, but I didn't know much about the musical version other than there was much, much more music.
It turned out to be an unexpected delight. I've always found Mel Brooks' work a bit hit-and-miss, but this really is his masterpiece. You can forgive the occasionally flat "Jewish princess" gag and his relentless milking of every racial and sexual stereotype there is, when it's all done so shamelessly, and hilariously.
The basic plot concept from the film is intact: two Producers work out that they can make more money from a failed Broadway production than from a successful one, and set out to make a musical so bad that it can't help but fail. They needed extra plot hooks in the stage version to hang the songs from, and these take the form of hiring an outrageously homosexual (and possibly transvestite, tranny-blog-relevency fans!) stage director that gets roped in to "gay up" Springtime for Hitler, and a flimsy but fun romantic story-line between Leo Bloom and statuesque Swedish actress Ulla.
The highlight has to be the actual "musical within a musical" itself. The "Springtime for Hitler" number is massively expanded from the film, and is stunning in it's glorious awfulness. I laughed until I cried through the entire section, which I don't think I could say about any other number in any other musical... ok, maybe bits of Miss Saigon.
After the gloriously camp Hitler has defeated the Allied leaders, and the showgirls dressed as various Teutonic foodstuffs have sashayed off the stage, the rest of the show falls a bit flat. All that's left is for the love interest story to be tied up, and for the massive hole that Bloom and Bialystock have dug for themselves through the unexpected success of Springtime to be filled in. I would have preferred that this part were shorter and that "Springtime for Hitler" was made more of a finale, which it deserves to be.
Another quibble I had was with Reece Shearsmith as the nerdy, neurotic Bloom. He didn't really have the voice for some of the numbers and hit a few bum notes, and as Jane pointed out, didn't really come across as Jewish, which spoilt one of the show's main jokes. Cory English pulled off his role as the greasy, conniving Bialystock much better.
Anyhoo, something of a change for me to do a theatre review, hope you enjoyed it. :-)
I came to the Producers musical pretty much open-minded. I'd seen the film and enjoyed it's infamous "Springtime for Hitler" number, but I didn't know much about the musical version other than there was much, much more music.
It turned out to be an unexpected delight. I've always found Mel Brooks' work a bit hit-and-miss, but this really is his masterpiece. You can forgive the occasionally flat "Jewish princess" gag and his relentless milking of every racial and sexual stereotype there is, when it's all done so shamelessly, and hilariously.
The basic plot concept from the film is intact: two Producers work out that they can make more money from a failed Broadway production than from a successful one, and set out to make a musical so bad that it can't help but fail. They needed extra plot hooks in the stage version to hang the songs from, and these take the form of hiring an outrageously homosexual (and possibly transvestite, tranny-blog-relevency fans!) stage director that gets roped in to "gay up" Springtime for Hitler, and a flimsy but fun romantic story-line between Leo Bloom and statuesque Swedish actress Ulla.
The highlight has to be the actual "musical within a musical" itself. The "Springtime for Hitler" number is massively expanded from the film, and is stunning in it's glorious awfulness. I laughed until I cried through the entire section, which I don't think I could say about any other number in any other musical... ok, maybe bits of Miss Saigon.
After the gloriously camp Hitler has defeated the Allied leaders, and the showgirls dressed as various Teutonic foodstuffs have sashayed off the stage, the rest of the show falls a bit flat. All that's left is for the love interest story to be tied up, and for the massive hole that Bloom and Bialystock have dug for themselves through the unexpected success of Springtime to be filled in. I would have preferred that this part were shorter and that "Springtime for Hitler" was made more of a finale, which it deserves to be.
Another quibble I had was with Reece Shearsmith as the nerdy, neurotic Bloom. He didn't really have the voice for some of the numbers and hit a few bum notes, and as Jane pointed out, didn't really come across as Jewish, which spoilt one of the show's main jokes. Cory English pulled off his role as the greasy, conniving Bialystock much better.
Anyhoo, something of a change for me to do a theatre review, hope you enjoyed it. :-)
I was just a paper-hanger,
No-one more obscurer.
Got a phonecall from the Reichstag,
(gasp!)
Told me I was Fuhrer.
Try that on for size.
"I made out the check just like you told me, Mr. Bialystock...to the name of the play, Cash."
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