Customer Reviews

A Year with the Producers: One Actor's Exhausting (But Worth It) Journey from Cats to Mel Brooks' Mega-Hit (A theatre arts book)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Last October I was fortunate enough to see "The Producers" on Broadway. First of all I must say it lives up to its hype. It's brash, bright, tuneful and FUNNY. Nathan Lane was out at that performance but Brad Oscar (the current Max) and Matthew Broderick were in fantastic form.
This all brings me to this wonderful book. Jeffry Denman, a member of the ensemble, received a call in August 2000 from his agent who scored an audition for him. At the time he was in "Cats" which was winding down its 18 year run in a few weeks. On September 10, 2000 he began this wonderful journal. It takes the reader to the closing of "Cats" and on to the auditions and callbacks for "The Producers".
Denman is an excellent writer and makes his year long odyssey a joy to read about. He tells of winning director Susan Stroman and Mel Brooks over, the first rehearsals, the small parts in the musical he is assigned. He is ten assigned to cover (understudy) Matthew Broderick. The book ends one year later after his performing the part of Leo Bloom for 4 performances when Broderick was out.
Anyone who has ever done theatre or who wants to know what goes on behind the scenes will find this book fascinating. Denman writes with complete candor and often times affection for his fellow actors and crew members. His parents also figure prominently in his affection.
The reader will find out how the show gets on its legs, what it is like to be out of town in Chicago prior to Broadway, recording the cast album and the grand opening night.
He also lets the reader into his own personal life and lets us know what it is like being an actor and the demands it places on him.
It reads quickly and it is very difficult to put down. Jeffry Denman said he would like to write another book. Lets hope so.

This is a terrific book for anyone interested in the creative processes involved in getting a big Broadway musical on stage and what happens to the non-star names who are the backbone of any show - the people who support the stars and are the basis of the show.

Jeff Denman is a wonderful writer. I read the book in one evening taking time only for dinner and actually read while eating. It is one of those "can't put down" books. There is an ease and polish to his writing that allows the reader to feel Jeff is talking to him/her instead of just putting words on paper.

The narrative begins when Jeff is one of the principals in the last cast of "Cats" on Broadway going right through closing night. He takes the reader through auditions for "The Producers" that took place just before the closing and how he went from one show to the other. Then he details the rehearsal process, the out of town tryout and the New York opening. The closing section is the suspensful time he went through as the understudy for Matthew Broderick and going on for him during his vacation. It is so well written that it is possible to feel the nerves and tension he went through at this time.

Jeff mentions his roots in Buffalo and doing productions in this area before going to New York. I was lucky enough to have been in a musical with him and know he is a terrific singer-actor-dancer, but I was unaware of what a good writer he is.

If you would like to see him at work, he has a featured dance on the DVD "My Favorite Broadway, The Love Songs" (a lovely "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" partnered with Joan Hess) and can be seen throughout the DVD "Recording The Producers" about the recording of the cast album. (Watch during the tap sequence - Jeff has a distinctive pair of shoes so you can pick out his feet when no heads are shown.)

This is a book that anyone who loves musicals and theater should add to thier library to get the perspective of how the supporting actors really make the show. It is a book that can and will be reread many times.

What a wonderful glimpse inside the world of a working actor! I couldn't put this book down. I needed to know what was going to happen next. (I read it in one sitting - something I rarely do.) If you are curoius about what it takes to be in a Broadway show - this is the book for you.

If Jeffrey Denmans Broadway career goes into a tailspin (which I highly doubt) he could definetely get a job as an author. This book to say the least is impossible to put down. I read it in one sitting. Not only is it a brilliant look into the minds of Denman, Mel Brooks, Susan Stroman, and others, but it is a indispensable look at professional theatre and the toils and work that go into 3 hours of an amazing theatrical experience.

Ok, so I'm on vacation in New York a few weeks back and I actually scored some tickets to see The Producers. We were REALLY high up but I did not care. Truly, this show is "the best new musical of the decade." After the show I began a quest for a nearby Starbucks--which, by the way, close at 1100p in Manhattan, something that still baffles me--so I stop in the Barnes and Noble near Lincoln Center to get a book for the plane ride home. I find this wonderful little book and begin reading when I get back to my hotel. I stayed up til 200a reading this book then fell asleep from just being tired, then I finished it the next morning. So much for reading it on the plane... this is SUCH a great book! BUY IT! :)

This book is an interesting little backstage look at Broadway musical theater by one of the faceless, hard working, (struggling to be) up and coming, supporting performers. Twice in the beginning of this book, written in 2001, he notes how impressed he was with the show 'Crazy for You', and in 2007, when I first saw him perform, it was as the lead in (you guessed it) 'Crazy for You'.

Denman is a versatile guy, onstage as singer, dancer, actor, and offstage as choreographer, playwright, tap dance teacher, and (based on this book) quite a good writer. From the credits shown on his web site and based on what I saw at North Shore Music Theater (near Boston) Denman has made good progress in the years since writing this book toward his stated goal of moving up to principal performer.

Video of Denman (paired with Amanda Watkins) in the North Shore Music Theater production of Crazy for You is available on YouTube (search phrase "Jeffry Denman".

[...]

Reading this book takes you backstage from the beginning to the building, block by block, of the best musical since "Phantom". You learn all about the hard work, stress, happiness, and disapointments that go into the making of a megahit. Nothing I have read gives you the real insiders view of what it takes to put together a piece of art that will give so many people pleasure for years to come.

This book is a great example of why editors are so important. It seems this author didn't have one. The journal should have been the starting point of a book, not the end product. Instead of giving us the excruciating details interesting to no one but Mom and Dad(he started singing "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" when his girlfriend was running late, whoopee), I expected some real insights into how Broadway-level theatre is created. OK, we get that it runs at a breakneck pace and that all the chorus kids think they could get the dance steps faster and better than the real stars. We get that this author hates it when stars get star treatment and the chorus is left out in the cold. (He did seem to enjoy the star dressing room when he got it for a couple of days, though, didn't he?) I can't believe we got so few stories about Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Mel Brooks... I mean, come on, Jeffrey, your long-winded description of your last performance of Cats is not what someone buying "a year with the Producers" wants to know about. Bottom line: this book is like your co-worker's vacation pictures from Niagara Falls. A complete bore.

I have several friends who were in the original cast of "The Producers". When visiting them back in 2002, one of my friends told me about Jeffry's book he was writing. Being one of the biggest Mel Brooks fans on the planet, I was really quite anxious to read it. About 25 pages into it, I realized that it should have been titled "A Year With 'The Producers' featuring MYSELF". I thought the book would have been much more interesting if it had been less about an unknown actor/writer, and how many names he could drop ,and more about people we've actually heard of.
The thing I found most disappointing was that more than a couple of times, Denman starts to tell us something interesting that someone said but then uses phrases like "but I'll keep that to myself", or "but I won't print that here". Then WHY write a book like this if you're not going to tell us the good stuff. That's the stuff we want to hear!
My other let down was that the final entry of the book was on September 10, 2001. I think the book could have benifited if Dehnman had written about how the show was effected by the events of 9/11. Seemed like a no brainer to me. I wonder why he chose to stop there?
In short, don't waste your time with this one. Buy the coffee table book that actually does have funny stories about Mel and the other interesting characters that somehow Jeffry didn't notice were around for that year.

this is a great book for anyone interested in any aspect of the theatre. It is an intimate look at the process, how actors live and work.