Sennett: ‘The Producers’ came to Toledo

Mel Brooks’s “The Producers” is shocking, outrageous, insulting — and I love every minute of it. Filled with racial satire, sexual stereotypes and above all, Nazi parody, “The Producers” is the story of two unlikely New York schmucks who try to produce the worst play of all time. The trouble is, it turns out to be a hit. This Mel “Elizabeth” Brooks story has been a 1968 film with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, a 2001 Broadway musical staring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and then a film again in 2005 with the Broadway cast. It is the kind of story that can be told over and over, with endless casts speaking the same words, but offering an entire new spin on this truly classic comedy. Last Thursday, the masterpiece goose-stepped all the way to Toledo’s Valentine Theatre.

Of course the comical timing of the great Nathan Lane or Zero Mostel is nearly impossible to beat. However, I am always intrigued to see what a new cast brings to the play. Not unlike Shakespeare comedies, the humor has changed over the years, depending on how the actors perform. The actor has the power to emphasize whatever words or actions they like. This keeps even the oldest plays fresh for centuries. Theatre is a performing art, not a plastic one like film. When actors are committed to celluloid, they are, in a way, trapped forever within the frames of a film strip. Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel’s performances are archived and will be enjoyed for a very long time, but their performances are frozen in 1968. New performers in the stage version of this story have the flexibility to update their performance every single night. These performers updated the comedy of “The Producers,” while still remaining faithful to the classic source material.

I have seen the two film versions of “The Producers” so many times that I could probably recite them backwards. This bias crutches my ability to critique last week’s Valentine Theatre performance. I found myself hyper-aware of even the slightest variation of every scene. The actors would pause in the “wrong” spot, or move too quickly in others. During the first act, I even resented the newcomers. Then something happened — and they won me over.

David Johnson portrayed Max Bialystock in this Big League Production of Mel Brooks’s musical. Johnson, like all Max Bialystocks since Zero Mostel, is a tacky, sloppy, “fat” ex-King of Broadway. Even Larry David’s TV version of this character, while not fat, was true to his essential traits. Johnson brought a sleazy, thin mustache and toupee to the look of the character and practically spat every single line. Brilliant. Richard Lafleur played the timid, but determined accountant counterpart, Leo Bloom . Bloom’s long-time dream of leaving the accounting firm and becoming a Broadway producer turns into reality when he teams up with Bialystock, forming an unlikely friendship. While Lafleur had great chemistry with Johnson, his voice seemed tired and scratchy toward the end of the show. I applaud Lafleur for performing even if he had a cold, but it was distracting, nevertheless.

The funniest and most rewarding part of becoming so familiar with a play like I am with “The Producers” is noticing subtle additions that enhance the storytelling over time. Director Nigel West took Susan Stroman’s original Broadway direction and choreography carefully into account in this production. The dances had a classy old-fashioned charm to them, with plenty of slapstick humor inserted throughout. West was faithful to the original, but added a few extra bits of his own physical comedy just for fun. At times, Leo and Max seemed a lot like Laurel and Hardy, bumbling around the stage and stepping on each other’s feat. These additions were big laughs to first-time viewers, and rewards for long-time fans.

“The Producers” is a treat and always will be. No matter how many times I see Hitler “heil” himself, it will never get old. As long as new actors add to the timing and rhythm of this story, it will always be new to me and to loyal audiences who have watched this piece grow over the years. Unfortunately, this was a one-night only traveling performance in Toledo, but something tells me this play will be in circulation for a long time.

Evan Sennett is a first-year majoring in film studies, and he is also an IC cartoonist.