Customer Reviews

The Producers (2001 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(136)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

What a treat to listen to the soundtrack of Mel Brooks' musical comedy based on his 1968 movie of the same name. I've never seen the movie nor will I, in all likelihood, get to New York to see this on stage. But, sitting in the comfort of my own home and listening to Nathan Lane and Matthew Borderick belt out their angst-driven energy as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom was a fantastic musical treat. The lyrics brim with Mel Brooks' distinctive wit, and though he'll never be confused with Oscar Hammerstein, this brazen and bawdy man knows how to entertain better than almost anyone.

When the overture begins and the first strains of "Springtime for Hitler" are heard, you know you are in for an engaging, disarming event. Nathan Lane's mugging, particularly in his "Fiddler on the Roof" takeoff as "The King of Broadway" comes shining through. "West Side Story," "The Pajama Game," "Cabaret," and other Broadway classics are spoofed in beguiling musical parodies.

If you don't see the actual production on stage you may miss the sex-starved old ladies dancing desperately with their walkers or the sight gags and the cameo appearance of Stormtrooper Mel Himself, but this CD is worth every penny for its high energy performances captured for everyone to enjoy. And as a special bonus, the gloriously nutty repartee within the songs has been recorded so the listener gets the full flow of the story.

My wife and I were lucky enough to see the show in previews on Broadway and we haven't stopped laughing yet. The CD contains music which SOUNDS like tunes you've heard before -- even a casual listening will prompt you to think of Gypsy, Bye Bye Birdie, A Funny Thing Happened . . ., How To Succeed . . ., Fiddler on the Roof and at least a half-dozen other shows. It's as if someone dug this recording out of a circa 1950 time capsule.

This isn't meant to say the show is merely derivative. In fact, I consider the broadly familiar sound a strong positive factor. So is the madcap humor and pacing, both of the songs and the production as a whole.

Indeed, one of the show-stoppers on this cast recording is "The King of Old Broadway" and that's what this entire show is: a fabulous throwback to the old Broadway of classic American musical comedy of the mid-20th century. Three minutes into this CD you'll know you're NOT listening to a Disney show nor one composed by a Brit with three names.

Mel Brooks' tunes are catchy and singable and his lyrics are Noel Coward-sharp. (Just see if you can get these ditties out of your head!) The CD comes with a nice extra: extensive liner notes which include the complete lyrics and spoken interludes of every song.

The songs on the recording are well-played by an enthusiastic orchestra -- Glen Kelly's fine arrangements and orchestrations flesh out Mel's tunes. The singing is uniformly good, an occasional flat note not withstanding, and the interpreations are inspired. When Max/Nathan Lane tells Leo/Matthew Broderick near the end of the show, "I never realized you're a good singer" it's more than a line of dialogue. It's actually true.

If you're lucky enough to see the show, the CD is the ultimate souvenir. If you haven't seen it, the CD will more than tide you over until you do. And if "The Producers" inspires a renewal of the American musical comedy genre in the next few years (let's face it, success breeds imitation), then we all have Mel Brooks and company to thank or, to parody one of his own songs from the show:

Broadway going nowhere in a hurry . . . 'til him.

Bland and spiceless, never ever curry . . . 'til him.

Mel's schtick changed the Great White Way.

It's no longer prim.

Oi vay, let's hope there's at least another one . . . like him.

I was fortunate enough to see "The Producers" with Nathan Lane & Matthew Broderick shortly after it's premiere. The show was absolutely hysterical, with a really strong score. Nothing against Mr. Broderick, but Mr. Lane's part is larger & has the best songs. He totally deserved the Tony for Best Actor that year.

Musically, the production contains more songs than a typical score, with strong voices and orchestrations. Best tracks include:

The King Of Broadway
I Wanna Be A Producer
Keep It Gay
When You Got It, Flaunt It
Along Came Bialy
Springtime For Hitler
Betrayed [Lane's "tour de force" recap of the show]

While I wouldn't call this the best show to grace the stage (though it won the most Tonys ever & NY critics tripped over themselves in praise), it is fantastic & came at a time when the Great White Way was taking itself way too seriously. Also, it was too bad that "The Full Monty" did not share in the victories of that season. Timing is everything!

Nonetheless, one of the best scores ever!

Even though I've never seen the 1969 movie (I'm still desperately combing through the video stores in town), The Producers is clearly a Mel Brooks creation from beginning to end. I've grown up on his movies, and when I heard that he created a MUSICAL, I became very excited.

What is there to say that hasn't been said? To quote Where Did We Go Right, "It was shocking, outrageous, insulting...and I loved every minute of it!" Although I know I'll never see it live, having the cast album is enough for me.

I absolutely adore Matthew Broderick (even though he'll always be Ferris Bueller to me), and who knew he had such a great singing voice? Nathan Lane is an absolute genius as Max and definately earned his Tony (sorry Matthew, but Leo just isn't as juicy a role).

The supporting cast is so increadible that I wish all 3 male nominees could have won! Brad Oscar is HILLARIOUS as Franz Liebkind (Adolf Elizabeth Hitler?), Roger Bart is deliciously gay (meaning happy of course!) as Carmen Ghia, and Gary Beach steals the show durring all of his numbers as Roger DeBris with his visions of "German soldiers marching through France, played by chorus boys in very tight pants." I also have to give props to Cady Huffman's Ulla--her accent is delicious and her song is hillarious.

I adore all of the songs, but some that stand out are "The King of Broadway," "I Wanna Be a Producer," "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop," "Keep it Gay," "Along Came Bialy," "Where Did We Go Right," "Betrayed," "Til Him," and, of course, "Springtime for Hitler." Keeping up with his tradition of having bit parts in all of his films, Mel Brooks does a delightful cameo as a stormtrooper who advises, "Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi Party!" And of course there's the flammingly gay Adolf Hitler who declares that he's the "German Ethel Merman, doncha know?!".

I'm just glad that I got this album durring the summer, because I suddenly find myself singing, "the Fuhrer is causing a furor" and "we're marching to a faster pace....look out, here comes the master race!" There's nothing more to say than The Producers is pure genius and anyone with $15 to burn HAS to buy this CD!

While waiting for tickets to THE PRODUCERS - and if you haven't already secured them you could be in for a long wait - you can savor the great moments from the score courtesy of Sony's original cast disc. This is one of the best cast albums to come from Sony since the days of Goddard Lieberson.

Produced by Hugh Fordin the CD captures the fun and spirit of the award-laden musical comedy. The booklet includes a detailed synopsis and a libretto, though neither is really necessary. Play the disc and you can easily follow the story. There are welcome bits of dialogue to bridge the songs and Mel Brooks seems quite happy to give away some of the shows best jokes. For more see the color photos in the booklet: A finale shot shows the marquees of some other Bialystock & Bloom musicals: MAIM, SOUTH PASSAIC and HIGH BUTTON JEWS among others.

If you are already a fan of Mel Brooks or know the 1967 film which inspired the musical, you have an inkling the tasteless lunacy that runs merrily through the CD's 73 minutes. But there is more. Nathan Lane was impressive with his 1996 revival of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, but here he sinks his teeth into the character of Max Bialystock the self-proclaimed "king of old Broadway." Lane does not posses a huge voice but his manic, over the top delivery enlivens the proceedings from the start. Listen to his late second act madcap recap of the plot to hear comic timing at its absolute best!

As his partner in crime, Matthew Broderick again displays a sweet-voiced innocence that masks his cut-throat ways. Broderick played a similar viper in the 1995 revival of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. Here he is given fewer opportunities to shine but he makes the most of "I Wanna Be a Producer" and the tender "'Til Him."

The rest of the cast are given their moments to shine but its Gary Beach who leads the showstopping "Springtime for Hitler" production number. Cady Huffman who impressed critics as Ziegfeld's favorite in THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES is once again cast as a blonde bombshell, this time with a German accent. "When You Got, Flaunt it" she sings ...and indeed she does.

Mel Brooks is named as composer of the score, and indeed he created the melodies by humming them into a tape recorder. The transcribing was done by Glen Kelly who remains an unsung hero for this musical. Kelly's transcriptions were orchestrated in traditional brassy Broadway style by Doug Besterman and played with great panache by a somewhat enlarged orchestra crisply conducted by Patrick S. Brady.

If Brooks had some assistance with the tunes, the lyrics are all his and there are jokes to spare: Brad Oscar as the title character in SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER declares himself "the German Ethel Merman" employing a Merman-esque twang as he sings the line; A chorus line of little old ladies do a tap dance using their walkers; A wildly inventive choreographer spins visions of "German Soldiers dancing through France played by chorus boys in very tight pants."

It is refreshing in an era of political correctness, when classic musical have to have their scores "adjusted" for modern consumption, that Mel Brooks seems so willing to risk offending every segment of the audience. We laugh at every tasteless joke and he laughs all the way to the bank!

I saw the pre-Broadway run of "The Producers" in Chicago and have never laughed so much and I had plenty of company. The whole theater was in the same state for the whole show. Now, Mel Brooks is no Richard Rodgers, Frederick Lowe, or George Gershwin. However, the tunes are pleasing and catchy. He does give Oscar Hammerstein, Alan Lerner, and Ira Gershwin a run for their money with the lyrics. There are so many jokes in the songs that I keep finding new ones every time I listen to the CD. Nathan Lane is different from Zero Mostel but has the stage prescence to pull off the role, both acting and singing. I had a harder time with Matthew Broderick in the Gene Wilder role. I kept seeing and hearing him as a smart alecky teenager a la "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." However, he does a good job playing the neurotic, socially inept, and (this is not in the movie)sexually repressed Leo Bloom. He also has a decent voice. Standouts on the CD include Max's King of Broadway and Betrayed, Leo's I Wanna Be a Producer, Franz Leibkind's Guten Tag Hop Clop, Ulla's If You Got It, Flaunt It, and Roger De Bris's Keep It Gay. Max's seduction of Leo into his scheme is beautifully detailed in We Can Do It. I love all the other songs on the CD as well. Be forewarned, this is not a G or PG rated CD. A few of the lyrics are raunchy so if you have young children or are offended by 4 letter words, think twice before you buy this.

Shocking? Outrageous? Insulting? Of course, it wouldn't have been a Mel Brooks' movie classic if there hadn't been something in it to offend almost everyone. When I first saw The Producers thirty-some years ago I said to myself, "Self, wouldn't this be great as a musical? And I would have loved to do it myself (in my dreams), but Mel Brooks has finally beat me to it and now The Producers, The Musical is destined to become a Broadway classic!"

This recording allows you to forget the last several years of questionable Broadway musicals and return to a time when a Broadway show meant fun, laughs and music! Making his debut as a "Broadway" composer/lyricist Mel Brooks has captured the feel of some of Broadway's greatest songsmiths of the past and his music sparkles with touches of Styne, Loesser, and even Gershwin. His lyrics, however, are pure Brooks all the way. If you remember "Springtime For Hitler" and "Prisoners Of Love" from the original movie, you'll know what to expect from the 15 new fun numbers in the score.

The recording sounds great with just enough show dialogue to give it a live stage presence that a great Broadway Cast recording must have. But you have to expect this from a show with stars like Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. They are outstanding, and boy, is it going to be rough come Tonytime! Brooks has generously supplied each of them with showstoppers...solos and duets! And I can't wait to see Lane perform "The King Of Broadway" and "Betrayed" the second act number in which he reprises the entire show up to that point. Dear Mr. Letterman, if you would be so kind?

Producer, Hugh Forin, and Sony Classic should be congratulated for finally giving us a "real" Broadway Original Cast recording. Now, I can't wait to get the New York to see it in person!

By the way, isn't that Mr. Brooks doing a one line cameo in Springtime For Hitler? Listen close and let me know!

I listened to this CD for the first time at work, using headphones, and as soon as I got to the line "The songs were rotten, the book was stinkin', what he did to Shakespeare, Booth did to Lincoln" I laughed out loud. Of course, nobody else knew what I was listening to and I knew nobody else knew what I was listening to and that just made it all funnier. One of the best things you can say about Mel Brook's musical version of "The Producers" is that it works either way and that you can enjoy it almost as much if you have never seen the movie version as you can if you have been putting together a restored version of "Springtime for Hitler" in your mind for several decades (What? No song about the little blue blanket?). The musical certainly brings some different elements into prominence, the most obvious of which is Brooks' love affair with Broadway, as evidenced by his ability to do songs in the style of the legendary composers. You will recognize songs that remind you of Rogers & Hammerstein ("Til Him"), Cole Porter ("That Face") and Jule Styne ("I Wanna Be a Producer"). Not since Andrew Lloyd Webber overwhelmed Broadway audiences with examples of every music form ever known (e.g., the "what if Mozart wrote a bad opera" song in "Phantom"), has a composer tried to play in every ballpark. But with Brooks it is clear a question of a heartfelt love for the art form of the musical theater rather than an intellectual exercise in compositional theory.

Then there is also the budding relationship between the dethroned King of Broadway, Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane), and the mousy accountant who wants to be a Producer, Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick). Look at what happens to these two and it is clear "The Producers" is a love story, even a traditional one as such Broadway tales go. When you think of the chutzpa it takes for two actors to try to follow the legendary performances of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, all the while singing and dancing, it is impossible not to have admiration for how Lane and Broderick have made these roles their own. Still, I cannot get away from this being Mel Brooks' show, because it is the lyrics and not the music that strikes you, over and over again, on the head, until it is ready to burst open like a ripe melon (listening to Max's maniacal rhyming at the end of "The King of Broadway" and you will completely understand). I even love the way Brooks plays with the audience when we finally get to "Springtime for Hitler" and he keeps prolonging the moment when we actually get to hear the title. At least they kept Mel's "cameo." I only had to listen to this album once to understand why "The Producers" is the current toast of Broadway. Who would have ever thought a Broadway musical comedy would be so funny?

Whether or not you know the original movie, "The Producers," this original Broadway cast album will make your heart laugh and sing!!

Mel Brooks' lyrics contain his unique sense of humor and quippy, laugh-out-loud jokes. Each of the 16 new songs tells its own story in a humourous and sincere way. And they seamlessly combine with the 4 songs from the movie, making one loveable musical.

But the real thrill of this CD lies in the wonderful singing of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. Each has his own style and voice quality as they share one thing in common: their great stage voices are pure, natural, and delightfully easy to listen to. I could listen to them sing for hours. Which is exactly what I have done, listening to this CD over, and over, and over.

In my humble opinion, this CD will become a classic, just as the movie did.

Mel Brooks has done it! This C.D. contains some of the most hilarious lyrics and the most upbeat music. Although I have never seen the show, (and chances are slim that I will see it) this recording is enough to make me laugh. The definate highlights are "I Wanna be a Producer"(it perfectly explains the feelings of anyone who has dreamed of being in the show business), "Keep it Gay" (very funny!), and, of course, "Springtime for Hitler"(the best spoof of a Broadway show that I have ever heard). Nathan Lane gives a riveting performance as the greedy Max Bialystock. His comical timing is perfect. Matthew Broderick is adorable as the shy and bumbling Leo Bloom. Other great artists that are featured in this recording are Cady Huffman as the sexy, but a little clueless Ulla and Gary Beach as the flamboyantly homosexual Roger De Bris (who actually ends up playing Hitler). This CD will always remain one of my favorites. With great music and lyrics that will put a listener into hysterics, this show will go down in history as one of the great musical comedies!