The Producers

There is a moment in MLOC’s production of The Producers that serves to remind us what it is about community theatre companies that transcends the comparatively futile discussions about the elusive difference between professional and non-professional productions. And it belongs, in the first instance, to the program.

Lee Pezzimenti (22 February 1992 – 13 June 2013) was just 21 years old when he passed away from cancer. He had played the lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The King in Pippin (MLOC) and Mayor Finster in The Witches of Eastwick (MLOC). Lee had, the program tells us, ‘lived his life to the fullest’, and had shared his experiences of living with cancer with a capacity audience at Beaumaris Theatre (where he had starred as Joseph the previous year).

And I couldn’t help but imagine how much young Mr Pezzimenti would have adored this production of The Producers, which MLOC delivers to the stage in all its inventive, ridiculous and hilarious glory.

Mel Brooks’ life- and career-long genius – and it is genius in the purest sense of the term – has been to trample, with an exemplary precision, all over what we know as political correctness. What makes Brooks unique in the world is that he was doing it long before it might have been considered fashionable. (I think they call it post-dramatic today, which for many reviewers translates loosely into post-traumatic.) After all, who can forget the spectacular ‘The Inquisition’ musical number from ‘History of The World Part 1’, which is simply gob-smacking in its tenacity and the skill with which it is pulled off. When you consider the musical sophistication and sheer entertainment value of many of Brooks’ cinematic offerings, it is still surprising that it took so long for one of his films to be adapted for the Broadway stage.

Brooks, as you might expect, is everywhere in The Producers. He could easily be Max Bialystock, once a successful Broadway producer who is struggling to mount another success, just as he could be the wide-eyed, neurotic Leo Bloom, who clutches a little blue blanket to his face to comfort him in times of stress. Max and Leo are extremely demanding roles, and Michael Young (Max) and Matthew Hadgraft (Leo) bring them off beautifully.

Mr Hadgraft is a sensational triple-threat, with a grand sense of clowning and comedic timing, smooth as silk as a dancer, and a rich singing voice that would be right at home at Her Majesty’s or The Princess. Max Bialystock is the straight man of the piece, and is saddled with a good deal of the exposition, but he does get the big 11 o’clock number – Betrayed – which Mr Young polished off with pure music theatre muscle. It was astonishing that by that time of the night, he still had an ounce of energy left. If Leo is the heart of the piece, then Max is its soul. If you don’t care about Max, then The Producers will fail. It is an absolute credit to Mr Young, that as his Max stood alone and abandoned in the final scene in front of the judiciary, I cared very much about what would happen to him.

Sarah Power’s Ulla brings the perfect amount of platinum blonde spice to the show, and Daniel Cooper is full of fire and passion as the worst playwright in the world, Franz Liebkind (complete with his wonderful ‘human’pigeons).

The Producers boasts a veritable catalogue of showstoppers, and when Roger DeBris (a superb John Davidson) and Carmen Ghia (a perfect Jay Miller) took on ‘Keep It Gay’, it was as though the roof of the petite Phoenix Theatre was going to lift off. But when the company, complete with the ‘tap-dancing walking frames’, brought Act 1 to a close with the fabulous production number ‘Along came Bialy’, the stage was overflowing with the kind of all-in passion and enthusiasm for which we adore our community theatre companies.

If there is a problem with The Producers, it’s Act 2. You go to The Producers unable to wait for the infamous ‘Springtime for Hitler’, and once you’ve seen it, it is almost as though you could go home completely satisfied. In the structure of the piece, it’s as though Brooks is trying to pad out the second act, which is not helped by the seriousness of tone and the fact that nothing – neither the production nor the audience – can easily recover from all that ‘Springtime for Hitler’ is; an absolute highlight. In this production, MLOC’s creatives do themselves proud (it’s a much harder production number of pull off than it appears), and the costumes (Margot Sephton, Trudy Scott, Jenny Barratt and Margaret Boyd) are fabulous.

Mr Nisbet keeps the tempi right on the money, and his excellent orchestra responds to the challenge beautifully. It’s a great, music theatre sound that, in this world of synthesised backing tracks, is wonderful to both hear and see in the theatre. Ms Court brings a fine, steadying hand to the proceedings that, in typically Brooks fashion, always seem to be about to career off-course. The Producers covers a large amount of territory, and Ms Court and Ms Holland are never less than in complete control. Michael Richardson and Jacinta Lynne’s lighting manages to smartly suggest the essence of all the different locations that are also neatly accounted for by the company’s set design and construction team.

But just when you think you’ve seen it all, the company’s veteran performer Marie Couper effortlessly slides into the splits. And Mel Brooks would have loved it!

Geoffrey Williams 

Photographer: Adrian Morris

Earlier coverage and more detail