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LIFE
Hysterical Broadway show makes its way to Keith-Albee
“The Producers” makes its way to the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2.
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HUNTINGTON -- In a nation that swapped land for beads and that has game shows and casinos spinning their wheels of fortune day and night, it's hard not to love a theater plot with a good get-rich-quick-scheme.
Especially one with some Broadway razzle-dazzle and a scheme so horribly bad it's horribly funny.
First written for film in the late 1960s by oddball comedic legend Mel Brooks, "The Producers" tells the gut-busting story of how the hapless producer Max Bialystock and his clueless accountant Leo Bloom hatch a plot to raise a ton of money for a Broadway show by buttering up old ladies, finding the wackiest playwright, auditioning the most bizarre actors, producing a grade A flop, then pocketing the difference and jetting off to Rio.
Well, at least that was the plan, until their failure actually succeeded and blew their cover.
The wild and wacky musical ("Springtime for Hitler") within a comedy musical makes its way to the stage of the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, as part of the Marshall Artists Series.
Tickets are $55, $50, and $45. Youth tickets (17 & under) are $27.50, $25, and $22.50. Tickets can be purchased through the Marshall Artists Series box office, located in the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, or by calling (304) 696-6656 or (304) 523-5757.
Like many of the touring Broadway shows that come to the Keith, its reputations precedes it.
Perhaps none are as fresh in the memory and on the awards podium as "The Producers." The production unseated "Hello Dolly" as the show with the most Tony Awards in Broadway history, winning 12 including Best Musical, Best Original score, and Best Choreography.
Brooks won an Oscar for his screenplay of "The Producers," the 1968 film that starred Zero Mostel as Max and Gene Wilder as Leo.
At the urging of David Geffen, Brooks adapted the movie into a Broadway comedy-musical with Thomas Meehan with lyrics by Brooks and music by Brooks and Glen Kelly.
Casting two stars as Max and Leo (Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick), "The Producers" opened on April 19, 2001, and ran for 2,502 performances with its string of comedic songs, "When You Got It, Flaunt It," "Springtime for Hitler," "Prisoners of Love," and many more.
The dynamic duo then starred in a 2005 movie directed by Susan Stroman, who also directed the Broadway musical.
Jesse Coleman, a 24-year-old Wright State University graduate who plays Franz Liebkind (the Will Ferrell character in the movie), said it's been a real riot touring "The Producers," which goes over everywhere thanks to Brooks' absurd humor and quirky characters that make fun of nearly every type of person.
"He does stupid humor brilliantly," Coleman said. "The execution is perfect and there is absolutely nothing in any of Mel Brooks' movies or plays that allows the audience to take it seriously. That is the key. His humor is universal and so ridiculous that it is purely humor. There is not any social commentary in it, and there is no real point of conflict because he is lampooning everything and everyone. I think that is the beauty of his comedy."
Coleman said the beauty of "The Producers" on tour is that it brings that infectious, raucous laughter right to you in your town.
It's been in most cities as tours have popped up across 19 countries since "The Producers" first started traveling the States in 2002.
"It really is well received almost universally," said Coleman, who is also an understudy for Max. "We can take it to a lot of places where they haven't gotten to see the stage version of the show and that is always a lot of fun." It is also a lot of energy as the production features a live orchestra of about 12 members in addition to the cast of nearly 30 actors.
"It is around 30 people on stage giving out a lot of energy that is right there," Coleman said. "It's visceral experience to witness as it is happening. That is something movies can never capture."
Coleman, who has been out on the road with the show since 2006, said it says something about the production that it is going to be produced in Hitler's hometown of Vienna.
"One of the most beautiful things about humor I think is that it is one of the greatest forces for good in the world," Coleman said. "Simply because the more you can laugh at life's troubles, and the more we can laugh at ourselves, the more we can see our flaws and that we are not that different. It gives us common ground."
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