The Producers

PLOT:

The flop musical “Funny Boy” (based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet) opens (“Opening Night”). Afterward, Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick) arrives at the office of the show’s washed up producer, Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane). Max has hired Leo Bloom as his accountant. While studying Max’s books, Leo inadvertently inspires Max to put on a show that is certain to fail at the box office and cleverly change their accounts leaving them with $2,000,000 to spend. At first, Leo refuses to participate. Max, who cannot change the books himself, attempts to coax Leo into the scheme (“We Can Do It”). Leo still refuses and returns to his old accounting firm, Whitehall & Marks.

After being chastised by Mr. Marks (Jon Lovitz), Leo fantasizes about being a Broadway producer (“I Wanna Be a Producer”). Leo quits his job and with Max, forms Bialystock & Bloom. Max and Leo search for “the worst play ever written” and discover Springtime for Hitler,written by an ex-Nazi named Franz Liebkind (Will Ferrell). They are coerced into performing Adolf Hitler’s favorite tune in order to gain Liebkind’s signature for Broadway rights to the musical (“Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop”). They solicit a flamboyant gay director, Roger De Bris (Gary Beach) (the worst director in the world), to direct and choreograph the play. De Bris initially refuses saying that the musical is far too dark and gritty and that Broadway needs to be more “gay” (“Keep It Gay”). Roger is talked into it, however, after being enticed by Max and Leo, who tell him that if he directs the play, he is certain to win a Tony. Then, Ulla (Uma Thurman), a beautiful Swedish woman, appears at their office for casting despite there being no auditions. Max insists on hiring her as their secretary and auditioning her (“When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It”).

To gain the finances for the musical Max has sexual affairs with every old lady across town (“Along Came Bialy”). Max and Leo return to the office to discover that Ulla has redecorated it to be entirely white. After Max leaves, Leo laments about Ulla and the dangers of sexual affairs straying him from his work, culminating in a kiss between Leo and Ulla (“That Face”). Later, at the auditions for the role of Hitler, Franz becomes angered at a performer’s rendition of a beloved German song. Franz storms the stage and sings the song the correct way (“Haben sie gehört das deutsche band?”). Max hires Franz to play Hitler.

On opening night, as the cast and crew prepare to go on stage, Leo wishes everyone “good luck”, to which the players are horrified. They explain to Leo that it is in fact “bad luck” to say “good luck” on opening night and that the correct phrase is to say “break a leg” (“You Never Say Good Luck on Opening Night”). Franz leaves to prepare and, in his rush, literally breaks his leg. Max enlists Roger to perform the role in his place, and Roger accepts.

As the show opens, the audience is horrified and begins to walk out until Roger steps on stage as Hitler. Because his performance is so flamboyant, the audience sees the play as a mockery of Hitler rather than Franz’s original vision (“Springtime for Hitler”). As a result, the show is a success and the IRS will be keeping tabs on Max and Leo. Max gets arrested for his tax fraud while Leo and Ulla escape to Rio (“Betrayed”), however they return to stand up for Max in court (“‘Til Him”). The judge sentences them both to five years at Sing Sing prison, but they are pardoned after writing a musical in prison (“Prisoners of Love”), and go on to become successful Broadway producers.

REVIEW:

If you are a regular reader of this blog and my reviews, you can no doubt tell that I am a fan of musicals. The Producersdoes not disappoint. It has entertaining numbers, comedy, a sold plot, and Uma Thurman as an uber-hot Swedish sexpot!

I did not get the chance to see this on Broadway, mostly because I don’t live in NYC, but if previous musicals are any indication, it didn’t lose anything in the transition from stage to screen, except maybe a couple of songs.

Mel Brooks is a genius. However, if you expect to see the same kind of humor in this film as you would in some of his other film, such as Spaceballs, The History of the World, etc., you’ll be disappointed. However, this is still a good film.

It’s not without its flaws, though. Having not seen the Broadway production, I don’t know of these are in the original production or just a result of bad editing, but there are spots, especially as the film nears its end, that it just seems to rush to a conclusion without taking the time to move the plot forward. Of course, I was trying to rush through the movie today, myself, so it could have been my personal sense of rushing that caused said feeling.

This is an excellent film, and I highly recommend it to all, but like I said, don’t go in expecting your typical Mel Brooks film.

4 out of  5 stars