Review: "The Producers’ at Theatre By The Sea

Unless you have been studiously avoiding all things Broadway for the past decade or so, you know that Mel Brooks' production of The Producers was an un-paralleled  smash. It won more Tony Awards than any other show, ever.  Its advance ticket sales were phenomenal. The upper-range of ticket prices to a Broadway show became non-existent, because of its success.

The Broadway production spawned semi-permanent productions in major U.S. cities and quickly gained an international presence as well.

I have seen the show on Broadway.  I have seen the show in Las Vegas and I have seen one of the touring casts.  It is fair to say that I know the show well.

The production currently playing at Theatre By The Sea in Matunuck, RI is (after scaling one's expectations to the summer-stock barn setting) near perfect.  

The Producers lives and dies on the casting and performance of the Max Bialystock role.   In this production, Bob Arnold is terrific as Max.  Physically, he more closely resembles Don Rickles or Peter Boyle than Zero Mostel and Nathan Lane.   Arnold completely avoids the trap of trying to be Mostel or Lane, and creates a new Bialystock.  Arnold's singing is more than adequate for the role, which demands power more than beauty.  The role is incredibly demanding and Arnold has no problem transforming the strain of performing this role into the strain of being Bialystock. His dancing is delightful and he has believable chemistry with Doug Trapp as Leo Bloom.

It feels like Trapp has to rein in his natural talent to capture Bloom.  Trapp captures the mousy quality and gives physical definition to the transition from mouse to lion.  Trapp's inter-play with Bloom's baby blanket was done as funny as I have ever seen it done.

Julia Dennis vamps it up as Ulla.  Dennis is beautiful, dances well and can belt, really belt.

Bruce Warren turns in a fine performance as the neo-Nazi (or is it just Nazi) Franz Liebkind. The actor has to nail this role from the second the audience sees him. He has one scene in which to really shine, and Warren does.

As Broadway power-couple Roger DeBris and Carmen Ghia, Nate Suggs and Brian Bailey are over-the-top, hysterical.  Suggs and Bailey also bring humanity to these roles, which are written as bawdy stereotypes. Bailey's exits and Suggs' finale are both stand out moments of the production.

The supporting cast, including, but not limited to, Jean-Pierre Ferragamo, Gail Yudain, Patrick N. Lavallee, Yoav Levin, Asha Brownie-Gordon and Jason Bush, are individually and collectively superb. This group of actors rushes on and off stage playing more roles than I could keep track of, while doing the heavy lifting of the singing and dancing.  Well done.

Director Jerome Vivona has done an amazing job teasing out the subtleties in these very broad roles.  There are moments I saw in this production that I hadn't seen in others.  It makes me wonder if they were there always there or had been added by Vivona.

Brad Musgrove does a fine job adapting Susan Stroman's choreography to this production.  The scale is, obviously, smaller, but intricate nonetheless.

The orchestra, under the direction of Andrew Smithson, was flawless.

Audiences familiar with the stage production will notice that the set is also, obviously, scaled way down.  That is not to say that this production, or the production manager and staff are lacking.  The set is not designed to be anything close to permanent, and it shows.  This does not deter, in any quantifiable way from this divine production.

Ticket prices for The Producers range from $39.00 – $49.00.   Tickets can be purchased at the box office, located at 364 Cards Pond Road, Matunuck, RI, Monday - Saturday from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, online 24-hours-a-day at www.theatrebythesea.com and via telephone during normal box office hours by calling (401) 782-TKTS (8587).

$15 student rush tickets will be available on a limited basis one hour prior to curtain on the day of the performance with a valid student ID.

Photos by Mark Turek, courtesy of Theatre By The Sea.

Photo 1: Bob Arnold, Doug Trapp and Julia Dennis portray Max Bialystock, Leo Bloom and Ulla.

Photo 2: Brian Bailey and Nate Suggs portray Carmen Ghia and Roger De Bris.

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