The Producers

The story of old failed show producer meets young accountant who devises a plan to break himself out of his hum-drum life and make rich from theatre failings provides the background to this very entertaining show that the North Ormesby Minstrels performed with a cast of 20 truly talented performers.

The lead roles of Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom were played by Ken Horsley and George Maenami respectively with a great rapport and chemistry. Ken gave hilarious comedy timing with his “old ladies”, lively singing hopping on and off the sofa and clever character in his jail scene “Betrayed”; and George who had a super voice in his songs, with such funny frantic characterisation and lovely expressions of naivety in his performance, was the show stealer. Marty Maenami was funny in his role as Roger de Bris the flamboyant director, and Tom Milton was superb as the very camp assistant Carmen Ghia played with such expressive facial skills and a super swaying walk in heels. The six dancing girls were all beautifully choregraphed in their various scenes and styles, with Beth Coates as Ulla the showgirl secretary, portrayed with great flexibility and lovely character.  The schuhplattler dance of “Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop” from Max, Leo, and Franz Liebkind played by Jeff Sturdy was cute and was really well rehearsed.  The costumes were bright and colourful in the opening scene and continued to be throughout with colour contrasts from scene to scene.  The use of cast in all chorus scenes including the gents as old ladies and the girls as the men was a hoot and all dances were so well devised and rehearsed. 

The static set background worked well, added with revolves to change colour in the interval and with additional scenery brought on and off very slickly by the cast and crew, even maintaining their characters throughout scene changes. Lighting was slick and colourfully designed to add the ambience, and the sound despite a couple of mics misbehaving was well balanced.  MD Matthew Allan worked well with the 3-piece band and backing track, and made a cameo appearance singing with a great gusto voice.  Other cameos from Andrew Buchanan, Keith Lewis, Karen Coates, Gina McBride, and Marie Turnbull all added to the talented performances.

As the first show directed by Alice Maenami this was a fast moving, delightfully designed and a slick show that gave an entertaining evening of joy. The dance scenes with jazz, tap, show girls and Zimmer-frames were all creatively choreographed by her too and executed with accuracy and discipline by a cast that was clearly having fun; a fabulous show that was so well received by the full house audience - Thank you for a super show - well done all.

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