Geekshow

To Make Or Remake: The Producers Part 2

The lights go up. Intermission is over. It’s Max Bialystock’s latest show…er, sorry, Mel Brooks’ latest show. From a movie that was slow to gain a following, there’s now a successful Broadway show and yet another movie!

Sadly for me, I never actually got to see the show on Broadway. For all who did, I envy you greatly. I think Nathan Lane would have been awesome on stage. But I did see the Australian cast perform the show when it came to Sydney. Therefore I feel I can talk with some assurance about the musical as a whole. 

Being the youngest person in the audience on the day at the tender age of 20, it was a very surreal feeling. Most of the audience for The Producers that day were senior citz, a phenomenon I can only attribute to the fact that Reg Livermore, the actor playing Max, is popular with people in the 50+ age range. 

But I digress. When I decided to go see The Producers, I really had no idea what the story was even about. All I knew was that it was by Mel Brooks and that it was supposed to be awesome. I bought the CD soundtrack prior to and listened to it enough to have a good knowledge of the all the songs so that was a plus, yet there were still a few pieces missing, such as what it meant that Ulla was waiting for Leo at eleven. 

Needless to say, the show did not disappoint in any way. It truly was shocking, outrageous, insulting and I really did love every minute of it. The sets were incredible. I liked the way the set revolved back to Max’s office when Leo decided to be a producer and he was kneeling in exactly the same position he had been when Leo left. I still am perplexed at how they had the white replica set of the office after Ulla “tidies up” and how they would be able to have that one last colour spot for her to paint over in white, show after show. 

Speaking of Ulla, I think the expansion of her character was a good move in pushing the story forward. It added an extra element to Max and Leo’s relationship that didn’t exist in the original film. Not to mention the fact that the characterisation of Ulla in the original film as a bimbo merely there for sex appeal and little else, most probably would not fly in today’s culture. And while she isn’t exactly the sort of girl all women would identify with, she does provide a bit more of a gender balance to the story now that she is more prominent. 

The idea of removing the beatnik L.S.D from The Producers is one that I don’t really know how to resolve. In the original film I thought it was an interesting and funny way of sending up Hitler. As I said in part one of this article, I suppose such a character would have been more socially appropriate for the time of the first film, whereas now it might not have worked. Still, Roger jumping in at the last minute to play Hitler is very funny. 

While it will mean little to most of you, I thought the acting by the Australian cast was majoratively fantastic and in my humble opinion, comparable to the repute of the Broadway cast, with the exception of Bert Newton who played Franz. Bert is something of an icon here in Oz, yet I felt his performance left a little to be desired. It was hard to see past Bert Newton the man and believe in Franz Liebkind the character, something that I found a bit easier though still challenging with Will Ferrell in the movie version. Still, I believe that Bert’s health was not the best during the Sydney run of the show so perhaps that attributed to his less than astounding portrayal of the Neo Nazi nitwit. 

On the other hand, I greatly enjoyed Tom Burlinson’s interpretation of Leo and in some ways I feel it is even better than Matthew Broderick’s. While I have grown to enjoy Matthew’s Leo after many viewings of the film, there is just something about him as an actor that I can’t connect with. I found Burlinson’s pathetic and mouse-ishness as Leo humorous and entertaining while I find Broderick’s at times very annoying and frustrating. 

A further mention must be made of the Australian actor who played Carmen Ghia. Like Roger Bart and his hissing that never ended, the Australian actor decided to extend one arm diagonally up before himself and then move out of the scenery at a literal snail’s pace. Very funny and a very controlled and clever way of putting his own stamp on the character, in my opinion.  

Well, I guess since I have already talked about it a little, now would be a good time to turn my full attention to the film. Indeed there is little more to say about the Broadway version except as to how it compares with the theatrical version that came after it. 

I cannot deny that I simply love the new movie of The Producers, however, there are several elements to it that really do not work in a movie format the way they do on stage. It is these elements that I feel undermine the overall success of the film and are perhaps reason why it did not garner as widespread popularity as its immediate predecessor. 

From the minute the opening musical number starts, flaws in approach can be seen right away. I really think the secret to a successful movie musical is maintaining the illusion that the story unfolding exists within its own little world and that said world has no direct correlation with the real world of the audience. 

The “Opening Night” number doesn’t really achieve this. You feel just as if you are sitting in the audience at the stage show. The way the singers look up and out of sight as if playing to a theatre audience is very obvious and their actions and reactions are over exaggerated in a way that does not suit a film format. 

Another example is in the “I Wanna Be A Producer” sequence when the girls wearing pearls burst out of the filing cabinets. The “undesirable” girl in pearls simply does not work the way they have done it in the film. On the stage it is funny. You can tell that the actress is the same one who played the homeless lady at the beginning who suddenly pops up in Leo’s fantasy somehow. In the movie, you aren’t reliant on a limited stage cast to play multiple roles and in the translation, the gag is lost. While I understand that the song and dance routine would need to be reworked if this character were to be removed, I think it would have been worth the effort. 

A similar one is during “That Face” where Ulla and Leo rumble around behind the couch and it jostles to suggest their movement. Great on stage, not as good on film. A better gag could have arranged. Likewise when she asks him why he has gone so far camera right as opposed to stage right. 

But to ignore such negatives for now, I think there are quite a few positives in the film as well. I think the relationship dynamic between Max and Leo is a solid one. Both being film actors, I think Nathan and Matthew know how to strike the right balance in their portrayals from medium to medium as well as the chemistry they have obviously developed as actors. Afterall, without getting this element right, well, The Producers would then have become a flop about a flop. 

Once again the sets are stunning, as are the costumes, but due to the magic of the film world, the crew is able to go that one step further and really flesh out this world. The fountain scene is spectacular, even more so than in the original film. And the world inside Leo’s head when he fantasises about being a producer seems limitless now in a way that just can’t be achieved on stage. 

All in all, the question of to make or remake for me is an astounding yes. Sure, there are flaws and things that fall a little flat in both versions. Certainly the film suffers more from this than the stage show, but I think overall these second and third shots at building upon and making better this crazy story of two very different men with a very unique friendship are for all intents and purposes fairly successful and satisfy the sense of wishing to be entertained. 

Could they have gotten away with just the Broadway show and not the second movie? Sure, absolutely. Still, I do like that you can watch the movie again and again at your convenience. And I also like that for those of us who can’t make it to Broadway, we can still get a bit of a glimmer of what the experience might have been like.