The Producers

Adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks's 1967 film of the same name, we arrive in New York, 1959. Max Bialystock was once the king of Broadway, but now all his shows close on opening night. After putting together another Broadway flop, down-on-his-luck Producer Max Bialystock teams up with timid accountant Leo Bloom in a get-rich-quick scheme to put on the world's worst show and pocket money from the ‘old lady’ backers when it closes prematurely… or should do.

Paul Tapley (Max) and Steven Miller (Leo) set the bar high with their performances, both fully capturing their respective characters and in fine voice. They both hold the stage with ease from Paul’s opening and well- paced ‘The King of Old Broadway’ number through to the difficult ‘Betrayed’ which was very well handled and Steven’s sparkling company number ‘I wanna be a Producer’. ‘Mr Marks’, Leo’s inconsiderate boss was a well-played cameo by Dominic Hayne.

Having found the world’s worst show they need to sign up the writer ‘Franz’, played with great comedy by Matt Owens. ‘Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop’, at the physical expense of Leo was very funny. Having signed up the writer, they go in haste to find the world’s worst director and find ‘Roger  De Bris’ (Matthew Tebbatt)with his common law assistant ‘Carmen’ (Sean Phillips) both excelling  in their respective scenes particularly ‘Keep it Gay’ and later in Roger’s ‘Springtime for Hitler’.

Meanwhile ‘Ula’ arrives whose natural glamour overwhelms the guys into employing her as their secretary/ receptionist and a guaranteed part in the show! Loren Howland is every bit the required ‘blonde bombshell’, Loren acted, sang and moved well and even repainted the whole office during the ‘Intermission’! (Good to see a white set).

There were in fact several challenging set changes which were well handled by a hard working stage crew and some good use was made of the auditorium to accommodate some of these. Some scenes were enhanced with back cloth projections which worked. The costumes were on the whole authentic and the orchestra and sound well balanced. The company numbers were well rehearsed with some polished choreography by the dancers.

PODS were once again up for the challenge and succeeded and I look forward to ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass’ in December.

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