Show Report

The Producers was originally a 1968 Mel Brooks movie.  The movie won an Oscar for best original screenplay.  Brooks was encouraged by a friend to turn the movie into a musical.  He did, writing the lyrics and music himself. The musical debuted in 2001 and ran for over two thousand shows.  That same year it won the Tony award for best musical, best score, and best book of a musical. The original run starred Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

Mel Brooks is a comedic legend.  He is not only a comedian, but also a writer, actor, producer, director, composer and lyricists.  He is famous for his film parodies that influenced the outpouring of parody films that have hit the market in past years.  Some of these parodies include Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. He has influenced many famous comedic actors including Jim Carey and Andy Samberg.

I was fourteen when my mother, aunt and cousins took a trip to New York City.  My one cousin and aunt were attending a luncheon, and my mother decided to take my other cousin and I to a musical.  We got to the city in the morning to stand in line at the TKTS booth.  I can’t remember what we wanted to see, but when we got to the front whatever it was had sold out.  Because they want to keep the line moving, you don’t have a lot of time to decide.  We didn’t have a back up plan, so my mom asked for three tickets to see The Producers because she was familiar with the story and thought it would be good.

I had never seen a musical before and honestly did not really want to see one.  They seemed stupid to me with the singing and dancing in the middle of the action.  After I started watching the musical though I saw how it blends in with everything, and how seeing a live performance is so much different than watching a movie.  I was kind of surprised by how much I enjoyed myself.

The musical is about a couple of guys who decide that having a musical bomb on Broadway could make them a lot of money if they “cook the books”.  They decide to find an awful screenplay and set up a show to fail, so they can take off with the money that backed the play.  The play they pick is Springtime for Hitler written by an ex-Nazi.  There is a lot of comedy and funny songs throughout the musical.  It has a love story included, and even though the guys get arrested, it still has a happy ending.

I liked this musical the best because it was the first musical I have seen on Broadway, and the first musical I have seen that I really enjoyed.  I saw Mama Mia last year, and it was good, but I liked The Producers better.  I have seen some movies that are musicals, but it is not like watching a show live.  Also, I love comedies and parodies.  This offers both.