Issue #3
November 2001
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The Producers: Stage vs Screen by David Katz
Mel Brooks took a huge gamble creating a stage musical from a screen triumph. The gamble paid off handsomely, thanks to Mr. Brooks' intense involvement in every stage of the process. Although the Broadway production varies somewhat from the movie, the differences are minor, and work well in the new setting. In fact, hard as it is to believe, the stage musical is better than the movie.
A comparison of the two is in order. Why is the musical a better entertainment than the film? Where does the film outshine the stageplay? Let's take it element by element.
Cast: The movie cast, headed by Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, was perfect. They and the supporting actors and actresses were capable of the over-the-top playing that any Mel Brooks film demands, while not losing subtlety and emotional range. Nathan Lane is in no way inferior to Zero Mostel, and provides the same manic energy, air of complete untrustworthiness and hint of redeeming qualities that Mostel did, while singing and dancing to boot. Matthew Broderick is not in the same class as Gene Wilder, however. Acting as if his body was somehow inhabited by the dybbuk of Jerry Lewis, Broderick pretended to sing and dance. He's not great at either. Despite it all, though, he succeeded, conveying the intensity of the character's longing to be someone, to break out of the grey existence of a Public Accountant.
Book: The musical is faithful to the movie as far as the script is concerned, though a bit raunchier with no rating system to contend with. The changes made only strengthen the story. Some additional support is given in the first few minutes to Bialystock's decline as a producer, which makes the character's motivation stronger. The role of Ulla (deliciously played by Cady Huffman) is beefed up, and, to my mind, improved and made less of a cartoon. The scene on the rooftop with Bialystock, Bloom and Franz Liebkind (ably played by Brad Oscar), where the producers are attempting to get the author of Springtime for Hitler to sign a contract, is made screamingly funny by the conversion of the live pigeons in the movie to puppet pigeons on stage. The stage ending is a bit longer and weaker than the movie ending, but still effective, and still true to the basic plot. Thomas Meehan is given co-author credit with Mel Brooks.
Music and Dance: In effect, Mel Brooks has made a musical of a musical. The songs and production numbers on stage have been made organic to the story; action does not come to a stop for music and dance, rather the music and dance furthers the story. Strangely, although the songs are pleasant and lively, the best ones in the show were also in the picture: the numbers in Springtime for Hitler, ridiculous as they are meant to be, are also the most memorable. The dance numbers are beautifully staged and choreographed. The Busby Berkeley production numbers are exactly the kind of excess that the plot demands. The Broadway cast is at its most professional here. Even Matthew Broderick, whom a merciful choreographer has assigned movements that look like dance while not taxing his minimal skills, acquits himself well. Music and dance is part of what gives the stage production its edge over the screen production.
Sound and Presence: The stage really triumphs in the quality of immediacy. Seeing the show in person, rather than through the glass of TV or the outsized asbestos of a movie theater, provides a connection to the characters and to the supporting singers and dancers that no second-hand portrayal can equal. At that, however, it was a near thing, since the show is mic'ed. If they are going to destroy some of the immediacy of live performance through sound amplification, why can't they at least provide decent speakers? It took fifteen minutes to get used to the tinny sound and to shake off the anger that produced. Nevertheless, it is the live performance that hands the musical the decision over the film.
The Producers, at the St. James Theater, 246 W. 44th Street.
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