The Producers
September 30, 2007
Sunderland Empire
The Producers is best known as the classic 1968 Mel Brooks film starring Gene Wilder as the hapless Leo Bloom. But years later Brooks turned the story in to a musical where it won 12 Tony awards on Broadway and has recently finished a successful run in London West End as well as being made in to a film.
The story revolves around Max Bialystock, a one time hit producer who can now only produce shows that are so bad they close on opening night. To fund these productions he has an army of little old ladies who are more than willing to hand over their life savings to him when he pays them “attention”.
But his life changes when Leo Bloom calls to audit his accounts and discovers that even a flop show can make a profit, with a little creative accounting. With this in mind Max and Leo set about producing the worst show Broadway has ever seen in the hope of making a million dollars each.
The show they choose is Spring Time for Hitler which they allow to be turned in to a camp musical by failed director Roger DeBris. On opening night against all the odds the musical is a smash hit and the pair face ruin, which leads to Max being arrested and Leo escaping to Brazil with the money.
Playing the lead role of Max is Corey English a consummate stage performer who played the role in the West End immediately before the show started to tour. While Leo Bloom is played by Joe Pasquale, with Russ Abbot camping it up as failed director DeBris. Abbot ensures that every time he is on stage (from his initial entrance wearing a silver ball gown that resembles the Chrysler building to his tap dancing Hitler) he is the focus and the show lifts to a new level. He is matched by English as the sleezy Max who keeps the show bouncing along. But as Bloom, the casting of Pasquale does not quite work, unfortunately he seems to have little stage chemistry with English. It is the relationship between these two characters that is the heart of the show and here it seems to be missing. Having seen the original cast in London, Nathan Lane (the original “musical” Max) and Lee Evans, I know this can work better, and I feel this is the reason the show takes a while to get in to its stride after a slow start.
But if it is almost three hours of entertainment and you are a fan of Mel Brooks then this show is for you. You may not remember the score after you leave the theatre as there are no memorable songs, but you will have witnessed rows of little old ladies tap dancing with their zimmer frames, Hitler in a song and dance routine and pigeons flapping their wing and cooing to the chorus.
It is Corey English (who deserves to be a house hold name by now) and Russ Abbot that make this show work and they deserve all the credit they can get.
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