The Producers

Back at the Schubert, they’re staging a flop. THE PRODUCERS are reeling. Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) may be the king of Broadway, but his musical of HAMLET is "the worst thing in town". Defeat stirs an evening of wild antics as the curtain rises on the smash hit of the season.

So, THE PRODUCERS, stage their revenge play, a one-night flop. Their infamous scam...pocket the investments and run off to Rio. With his mousy accountant, Bloom (Matthew Broderick) still sucking on his security blanket, Bialystock kicks off a new musical SPRINGTIME WITH HITLER, a gay but straight romp with Adolph and Eva.

Mel Brooks’ killer comedy recalls Marx Brothers camp with its fondness for irony and shtick. In his parody of Broadway musicals and MGM classics, the heroes are no more the good-hearted youth, but two crooked impresarios. And the auteur of their neo-Nazi musical, a suspicious recluse with a fondness for pigeons. Cleary, Brooks is no poultry humorist. His comedy is brash, vulgar and blooming with insults. And insult he does every Nazi, Jew, Homosexual and their perpetuators, racists, bigots, your mother-in-law, whatever.

Susan Stroman’s direction and choreography drives the production to a pace that will make you qvell. The musical outdoes itself at every turn. There are beautiful girls dressed as storm troopers, a chorus of old ladies with walkers, and a Wagnerian parade of Nordic weirdoes, not to mention the paratroopers and the tanks salvaged from Miss Saigon.

As comic duo, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are mischievous, loud, and perfectly lovable. Mel Brooks’s lyrics are satiric, well-rhymed and to-the-point with tunes you may recall from elevator music. The best part is, that even at $100 a ticket, you won’t have to worry where your money is going.

That’s This Week on Broadway. I’m Isa Goldberg.