The Producers

Broadway comes to Milwaukee, and not in the usual sense of a touring production. No, in this instance, the Skylight Opera Theater has acquired the rights to produce Mel Brooks’ The Producers, and they are the first regional theater in the country to do so. If you think that a full-on Broadway musical would be out of reach for a regional theater, you’d be dead wrong. The Skylight does a wonderful job bringing Brooks’ zany romp to the Milwaukee stage.

Max Bialystock, a washed up Broadway producer, and Leo Bloom, a neurotic, unhappy public accountant, hatch an ingenious plan: they collect $2 million dollars to finance a production, then pick the worst script they can find and hire the worst director in New York. The idea is to spend as little as possible on the show, then have it be so bad that it closes in one night and the producers can pocket the difference. The IRS won’t care about money spent on a flop, and no one will come investigating. But wouldn’t you know- the show turns out to be a hit, leaving Max and Leo scrambling to stay out of jail. In case you haven’t seen any of the various versions of the story out there in the world, the musical they pick to produce is called Springtime for Hitler and it includes some choice irreverence. The cast further incorporates a Swedish bombshell named Ulla, whose grasp of English is shaky at best; a former Nazi (the writer of Springtime for Hitler) named Franz; the flamboyantly gay director Roger DiBris and his “common-law assistant” Carmen Guia; and an ensemble that plays a variety of roles as well as the chorus.

All the performers are spectacular. Bill Theisen as Bialystock is deliciously slimy, and Brian Vaughn as Bloom is adorably nervous about everything. Molly Rhode as Ulla is hilarious as the knock-out exhibitionist (her solo song is titled “If You Got It, Flaunt It”). Ray Jivoff and Jonathan West deliver unbelievably amusing caricatures of a gay couple in the Broadway business. Perhaps the highest accolades should go to the terrific ensemble cast, who plays all the bit parts, the chorus, and serves as the stage crew throughout the show. One can’t imagine the number of quick costume changes and breathless entries that must have been rehearsed to allow fourteen ensemble members to accomplish all that.

The sets were all constructed in the Skylight Scene Shop using materials almost exclusively recycled from previous productions. Because the ensemble serves as the stage crew, elaborate staging is absent, but scenic designer Brandon Ribardy does an excellent job creating spaces with minimal pieces. This also leaves the stage uncluttered for the many dance numbers that populate the show. The dancing may be the one weakness in the whole production; in the tap numbers, the dancers are often out of sync with each other, creating a cacophony rather than a beat-driven romp. But this is easily overlooked when one considers all the things that Skylight does so very well in this musical. VS

The Producers runs through January 4 at the Cabot Theatre in the Broadway Theater Center.  414-291-7800 or www.skylightopera.com for tickets.