The Producers Review

Civic's "Producers" earn laughs, but not hearts

friday, september 11, 2009
BY JENN MCKEE News Arts Writer

When a show boasts a record-breaking 12 Tony Award wins on its resume, it inspires high expectations among theatergoers.

And indeed, Mel Brooks’ movie-turned-stage-musical, “The Producers” - now being staged by Ann Arbor Civic Theatre - offers several moments of comedic satisfaction for, ahem, mature audiences. But due to Brooks’ merely serviceable score, and the show’s almost relentlessly cynical worldview, it’s a musical that’s far easier to appreciate than to love.

In the show, which features a book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan, foundering theater producer Max Bialystock (Matthew D. Grace) teams up with straitlaced accountant Leo Bloom (Karl Josef Co) to pull off a scam, raising tons of money from multiple investors for a Broadway show that’s a surefire flop. The worst script the two men can find is an earnest musical about Hitler; but when the show becomes a surprise hit, Max and Leo’s plans are derailed.

Co and Grace anchor the production well. Grace, the stronger actor, nicely conveys Max’s sleazy, bottom-feeder persona, and both he and Co deliver some marvelous vocal performances.

Another bright spot in the cast is Mia-Carina Mollicone, who plays Max and Leo’s Swedish bombshell secretary, Ulla, and hits a home run with her teasingly sexy number, “If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It.” Plus, El Berg is hilarious as Carmen, a theater director’s flamboyant “common law assistant.” (Berg’s exaggerated walk, by itself, set me to laughing every time he was on stage.)

Several other scenes, however, had jokes - in both lyric and dialogue form - that got buried beneath the orchestra, or a too-exaggerated German accent. (A common refrain around my seat was, “What did he say?”) Plus, in at least two instances on opening night, the lights went down completely before the scene had ended.

But Ron Smith’s often charming choreography - best highlighted in “If You’ve Got It” and “Along Came Bialy” - generally suits the material, despite its sometimes shaky execution (chorus members looked downright confused at the start of “Prisoners of Love”).

And when the musical veers toward farce after “Where Did We Go Right” - a moment when the frenetic physical action needs to be sharper and crisper than ever - the actors’ look harried and rushed.

But with a three-hour run time and a large cast, “The Producers” is a highly ambitious undertaking for any company, and director Wendy Sielaff has admirably corraled its myriad elements into a cohesive, mostly enjoyable production. If you seek a show with heart, though, this might not be the casting couch for you.