The Producers

Bringing the Tony-Award Winning musical back to the big screen -The Producers tells the story of a down on his luck producer (Lane) and his accountant (Broderick) and their get rich quick plan.

Directed by
Susan Stroman

Genres
Comedy, Musical

Cast
Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, Roger Bart, Gary Beach, Eileen Essell, Jon Lovitz, Andrea Martin, David Huddleston, Debra Monk, Jane

You surely can count on Mel Brooks for a good time! Much of this movie is very stereotypical, completely over the top and very, very funny. The actors-especially Wil Ferrell in an inspired performance as a neo Nazi playwright-have been given free reign to do whatever they want and they make the most of it.

The biggest problem with this movie is-it’s a Broadway play on film. You felt like breaking into applause after the lavish song-and-dance numbers, as you would were you at the theater. Not that this is bad per se, but it just works better in live theater than it does in a movie. Nathan Lane stares into a silent camera at the end of his big number and it seems lonely. As with all things Mel Brooks, there were lots of fun little surprises and cameos.

I did not see The Producers on stage, but I think I would have enjoyed it more. I like both Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, but they played the movie as if they were playing to the theater…which means they “over-played” their parts a bit. However, I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it, but I think the director needs to know next time to translate these things a little bit better for the screen.

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