Producing laughs

Deirdre Newman

An irreverent musical paying homage to the golden age of the Broadway

musical bounces into town Tuesday for a three-week run at the Orange

County Performing Arts Center.

“The Producers,” which snagged 12 Tony Awards in 2001, represents

the center’s dedication to bringing top-notch Broadway shows, center

Executive Director Jerry Mandel said. The story was co-written by

Thomas Meehan and Mel Brooks, who also provided the music and lyrics.

The musical is based on Brooks’ Academy Award-winning 1968 film of

the same name.

“Everyone in Hollywood and show business, that was one of their

favorite movies at the time,” Mandel said. “Over many years, we’ve

all loved that movie. And when we heard that Mel Brooks was going to

take this movie and make it into a Broadway show, of course we were

excited about it.”

“The Producers” chronicles the story of boisterous theatrical

producer Max Bialystock, who is down on his luck, and timid

accountant Leo Bloom. The pair team up as partners in crime to scam

old ladies into funding more money than needed for a sure-fire

Broadway flop. What ensues is absolute hilarity that will send

audiences into paroxysms of laughter, said Stuart Marland, who plays

Roger De Bris, director of the anticipated flop.

“Don’t come if you’ve just gotten appendicitis,” Marland said.

“It’s not a good idea if you have stitches.”

The characters are the kind you’d expect from the fertile

imagination of Brooks, Marland said. And the musical makes frequent

references to other musicals and to New York City, he added.

“For example, we have a doorbell in our townhouse that’s ‘I Feel

Pretty’ from ‘West Side Story,’” Marland said. “There are tributes to

Leonard Bernstein, everything you can possibly think of, the

Rockettes. It’s really terrific and important to know that nobody

escapes the world of Mel Brooks without being dragged through the

coals -- sexual preferences, ethnic types, whether you’re a Swedish

bombshell, an old lady or a lightweight director.”

While matinee crowds are often more sedate than evening crowds,

that doesn’t hold true for “The Producers,” Marland said.

“Our matinee audiences are some of the most demonstrative

audiences,” Marland said. “They’re quite often the ones who are

laughing and screaming the loudest....They’re the kind of people who,

for the most part, don’t get offended by the type of humor that Mel

Brooks has. They’ve lived long enough to know it’s all in fun.”

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.