Steadstyle Chicago
June 2009 Theatre Review by Joe Stead
The Producers
By the third song of "The Producers," the fourth and final summer offering at Rock Valley College Starlight Theatre in Rockville, I was ready to drop the "s" and call the show "The Producer". Christopher D. Brady may look like a virtual clone of the original Broadway star Matthew Broderick, but he has a singing voice Broderick can only dream of. He also moves gracefully and has a winning boyish charm that more than earns him his producer's fedora by the show's finale. By comparison his co-star John Chase seems to be merely going through the motions. The Max Bialystock character really demands a charismatic, larger than life personality to carry what is a mammoth star tour de force. Chase has a strong singing voice and deserves credit for at least tackling such a demanding role. But he's missing the zeal and the panache required to call himself "The King of Broadway".
It's no wonder regional and community theatres around the country are jumping at the chance to bring Mel Brooks' Broadway blockbuster to their own stages. It won a record number of Tony Awards and gave Broadway audiences reason to laugh again. Even with Brooks' signature vulgarity and equal opportunity insults to Jews, gays, the elderly and just about everybody else, the show is an old-fashioned audience pleaser. So check your offenses and political correctness at the door. And keep the little ones at home too; this is an adult musical comedy, indeed the lightest and funniest of the four selections offered in Rockford this summer.
Mel Brooks first brought his crooked theatrical impresarios to the big screen in 1968 in a film co-starring the great Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Who can forget the "Springtime for Hitler" number with its Busby Berkeley swirling swastikas and memorable punch line "Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party"? Such hilarious bad taste earned Brooks a reputation as Hollywood's bad boy cut-up in such classics as "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein" and "High Anxiety," among others. In "The Producers," a couple of shysters discover the secret to Broadway success is to find the worst show in the world, hire the worst director and cast and sit back and rake in all the investors' lost moola.
Artistic Director Michael P. Webb displays an enormous amount of chutzpah in producing such an elaborate and technically complex show as "The Producers". No doubt keeping four huge musicals spinning at once must take unbelievable coordination and organization, not to mention talent and money. The large outdoor pavilion stage fairly overflows with bodies (close to forty) and they just about trip over each other from time to time. Yet Webb manages to keep the long show running at a fast and funny pace that is quite delightful.
This is a community theatre show in the very best sense of the word, and at a modest $17 a ticket it is a first-rate bargain for suburban theatre-goers. Even though it lacks the professional polish Chicagoland audiences have seen in previous productions, it is quite a spectacular and entertaining accomplishment nonetheless. The orchestra conducted by Charles Matlock is as good as any you'll hear, the voices are all strong and clear and the sound is refreshingly free of distortion, a rare find in such a big open space. Note that the pavilion boasts a fully covered roof to ensure the show goes on even when Mother Nature is less than hospitable. It also serves as a welcome acoustic shell. Although not all of the cast rises to his level, Christopher D. Brady's exuberant performance as accountant turned producer Leo Bloom is one to remember.
"The Producers" runs June 24-27 and July 29-August 2, 2009 in the Bengt Sjostrom Theatre at Rock Valley College Starlight Theatre in Rockford. The show runs 2 hours 40 minutes with intermission. The season also includes "David, the King" July 8-12, "Evita" July 15-19, and "The King and I" July 22-26. For tickets, call 815-921-2160 or visit www.rvcsarlight.com.
About Joe Stead
Joe
Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has
involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for
the past twenty-five years. He served as founder, producer and
Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland
and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida. Favorite productions
have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap,"
"The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker,"
"Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie
Brown" and "Godspell". He has also performed
leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin,"
"The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and
most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for
Waukegan Community Players. Joe holds a degree in Commercial
Art from Tampa Technical Institute. As a critic, he has
reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major
regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey,
Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in
Sarasota, Florida.
Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America. He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers. He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene. Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays. His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).