Theater Reviews

Sep 29, 2004 - Hats off to a real Broadway show! "The Producers" has opened in Reno

By Jack Neal

Mix four parts vaudeville, three parts Marx Brothers, two parts Three Stooges, garnish with lots of Jackie Gleason, bring on board the astonishing Susan Stroman to direct and choreograph, and - presto - one has the Broadway mega-hit "The Producers."

This Mel Brooks laugh-riot of a musical comedy, which has been packing them in on Broadway since it opened in April 2001, is now on the road. It remains nothing less than a hilarious, fabulously staged, danced and sung show with a superlative cast of performers who cannot possibly be better at what they do than what they are, and they are terrific.

The even better news - if theater news can get better - is that this time Broadway really is in Reno in all its glory. Not that the Broadway Comes to Reno series, as presented at Reno's Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, hasn't been top-drawer at times, but this touring production of "The Producers" really is the absolute Broadway thing. It opened last night (9/28/04) at Reno's Pioneer Center for a six-day run and will make musical comedy fans forever out of anyone lucky enough to see this production. The show won ten Tony's the year it opened on Broadway and it's still a ten Tony show with this fabulous production on the road.

"The Producers" (the musical) is a re-working of "The Producers" (the movie) for which Mel Brooks won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1968. When Max, producer and womanizer - with older, horny rich women he gets to bankroll his shows, joins forces with Leo, an accountant who needs to break out of his dull numbers game and become someone, even a shady someone, the idea is hatched to produce a show that would be so bad it couldn't help but flop, lose money and reap rich financial rewards for its producers as a tax write off.

Hence the outrageously tasteless "Springtime for Hitler" is born. Penned by the world's worst author ("a book that's lousy and long, we'd done everything wrong"), and with Broadway's worst director on board, Max and Leo set out to insult the masses and walk away with a bundle.

As brilliant as Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were playing the two zany producers when the show first opened in New York, no apologies are needed for the in-all-ways oodles of fun and entertaining performances in this production by Bob Amaral (Max) and Andy Taylor (Leo).

That Amaral evokes memories of Jackie Gleason at his comedic best, isn't Mr. Amaral's fault. He's no copy. He is Max Bialystock, and - to paraphrase a Brooks' lyric - "He's not just a dirty old man, he's a Broadway producer." If Gleason was The Greatest, so is Bob Amaral. Amaral's take on Max is sensational. Likewise Andy Taylor's take on Leo Bloom, Max's partner in how to succeed at losing money without trying too hard, is perfection. From neurotic accountant to shady producer, Taylor sails along in this romp of a show with a breeziness that's irresistible.

Breeziness may not be an apt discription for the remainder of the cast, but whatever each has it's right for the shenanigans the inexhaustible Mel Brooks has in mind for the indelibly nutty and endearing characters he's created.

The blond and curvacious Ida Leigh Curtis is Ulla, the Swedish bombshell and showgirl who becomes Max's office manager in charge of the casting couch. Curtis is terrific at song, dance, comedy and evidently everything else. As the tres chic and tres gay director, Roger De Bris, whose motto for his work is "keep it light, keep it bright, keep it gay," Stuart Marland is over-the-top perfection. Carmen Ghia, the director's common law live-in assistant and significant cross dresser, is parlayed into a flurry of glitter, eye shadow and flamboyance via the adroit timing of Rich Affannato.

Bill Nolte plays the looney Franz Leibkind, author of "Springtime for Hitler." Nolte is a triple-threat hoot in swastika, boots and helmet. Special mention is in order for the naughty old lady bankrollerettes of Max's shows. Denise Nolin (Hold-Me Touch-Me), Janelle DeMarzo (Lick-Me Bite-Me), and Tory Ross (Kiss-Me Feel-Me) are winners all. As are all members of this luminous troupe.

Winners, too, are members of the superb creative team who have made "The Producers" such a richly endowed hit. Kudos to Glen Kelly for turning Mel Brooks' music into such a smashingly catchy score; to Doug Besterman for his wonderfully upbeat showbiz orchestrations; to conductor Steven Tyler and the show's 22-piece orchestra for great sounds and support from the pit; to Robin Wagner for his fabulous and too-numerous-to-count set inventions; to William Ivey Long for his always exciting and sometimes elegant costumes; to Peter Kaczorowski for his radiant lighting; and to Steve C. Kennedy for sound designs that makes the show such a joy to hear.

But most of all bravos to Mel Brooks for his genius at thinking the whole thing up, and to Susan Stroman for her dazzling creativity in direction and choreography. Both Brooks and Stroman are national treasures.

This production of "The Producers" will play eight performances at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Virginia St., Reno, Nevada, Tuesday, Sep. 28 through Sunday Oct. 3 (2004). For information call 775-686-6600.