The Producers - Melbourne Show
 

We have a Friday evening free and are wondering about seeing The Producers. We usually enjoy live shows/musicals. All views welcome please.

Are you asking for a review by someone who's seen the Melbourne production, or whether this Mel Brooks creation is in general the sort of show you'd enjoy?

Hi, bigarm1!

Mel Brooks came to Melbourne to oversee this production, and professed himself well-satisfied with how we were doing it when he left. I have a friend who saw it in New York in the first weeks of its run, and when it opened in Melbourne he actually flew down from Sydney just to see it (I would like to point out that while I have rich friends, I myself am quite poor!) His verdict: our two leads, though very good, don't quite have the star power of Lane and Broderick, but otherwise the show is terrific -- he thought it was a worthwhile trip, despite the fact that most Sydneysiders still make jokes about competitions where the first prize is a week in Melbourne, and the second prize is two weeks in Melbourne.

So, my advice is: go see it. What else could you do with a Friday night in Melbourne anyway?

I'm looking forward to seeing the show - the original Mel Brooks movie from 1968 or '69 still ranks as one of the funniest films ever made, IMO. It was of course not today's musical version, but it did feature the hilarious show-stopper "Springtime for Hitler". And with no disrespect to Lane and Broderick, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder were a very, very hard act to follow.

From experience of other musicals I would guess that the production values of the Australian show will be comparable to the Broadway version.

I am a Melbournian and recently saw The Producers. I loved it and I bet you will too. You will enjoy the Princess Theatre in Spring Street - it's a Melbourne landmark. Have fun!

Does anyone know what the Princess Theatre is showing after the Producers and is there a good website for giving what's on at the big Melbourne theatres, as I notice the Princess Theatre website only gives info on it's history and architecture.

bigarm1, I'm heading down to Melbourne for the weekend 21/22 August and will be seeing The Producers while there. Is your free Friday evening before that date or after? :)

Hi Pauline. Planning for early September, so would really look forward to receiving your comments on your return. Thanks everyone for the helpful comments.

hi, bigarm1
We (my husband and I) have been very involved in musical theatre in NZ for over 30 years on the performing as well as the producing / backstage sides. While we haven't seen The Producers, several of our friends in the same crowd have seen the show and were highly impressed. I would take the opportunity while you are there.

My husband and I saw The Producers at the Princess not long after it started and thought it was fabulous. We really enjoy live theatre and were not disappointed. Other shows we loved are Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. There are a couple of stand-out roles in The Producers besides the two leads - you'll know which ones once you've seen it! Ticket prices are not exactly cheap, we paid just under $100 each but it's not something we do every day.
A good website for general theatre/events is Ticketek (www.ticketek.com.au I think). You can buy tickets through Ticketek or direct from the Princess Theatre. Ticketek is automated but if you speak direct to the theatre they can talk you through which seats are available etc. We found tickets on a Sat night hard to get so I would book quickly.
Also, there are lots of restaurants around the corner from the Princess, in Little Bourke Street. If you tell them you are seeing the show they will serve you quickly.
Kay

Thanks Dotty and KayF; we'll book seats.

Now, the really important question: does anyone know when the show is moving to Sydney? I want to see it, and a 300km drive to Sin City is a lot more appealing than a 650km trek to Melbourne.

Hi, Neil!

From what I've heard, a Sydney run for "The Producers" is totally dependent on how well it does in Melbourne. If they turn in a huuge profit down there, then they know there is always a theatre available in Sydney (I can't imagine that "South Pacific", as good a show as it is, will tie up the Theatre Royal for long).

However, if "The Producers" doesn't recover its costs in Melbourne, it will probably join the long list of shows that they got and Sydney didn't. Maybe you should go south now and take the bird in the hand.

Thanks, Alan. It would be ironic in the extreme if "The Producers" flopped. Its plot is based on a plan to stage the worst show on Broadway, one that's bound to flop after one night, allowing the producers to skip to Rio with the unspent funds secured by seducing unwary old ladies with spare cash. To ensure their success they find a play presenting a romantic view of Adolf Hitler (complete with a troupe of gay chorus boys in SS uniforms) and run it in New York, a town with a very large Jewish population. That, and the worst director and leading man on Broadway, should do the trick, but to their horror it's so bad that it becomes a smash hit.

Hi, Neil!

I thought the original movie, with Zero Mostel seducing sixty-five-year-old Estelle Winwood, and Gene Wilder clutching his blue blanket, was an absolute hoot... even my kids, who (at age about seven and nine) didn't really understand how you could sell 2000% of a show, or why a show romanticising Hitler wouldn't go down too well in New York, thought it was great, and they still plead with me to run it again. Can the stage show possibly be as good as that? The Aussie casting -- Reg Livermore as Max -- is, to say the least, unorthodox -- I can imagine him, in his youth, playing the Gene Wilder part, but Max is a bit of a stretch. Anyway, at the prices they charge nowadays, I don't go to shows much, so I probably won't see this one, as much as I like Mel Brooks's work. I still long for the good old days, when I saw Sinatra at the Stadium for about three shillings, and Judy Garland for two pounds... and Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme on the same bill (Nat King Cole and June Christy shared a stage, too). In those days, Australians were really spoiled -- just about everyone getting a new act together came out to Australia to try it out before taking it to New York or London (so that when they bombed, as did, for instance, Peter O'Toole and Betty Hutton no one back home would ever hear about it). Sydney has some interesting theatrical tales to tell; someone should write a book. Dick Haymes fell down on stage at Chequers Nightclub; Marlene Dietrich fell over as she made her entrance, and it was just about the end of her career (she broke a leg, I think, and, not trusting Sydney doctors, flew all the way home to have it attended to by someone she trusted). Johnnie Ray got thrown out of his hotel at Watson's Bay for entertaining the guests in the lounge with some very unique piano playing that cannot, alas, be described on this forum. Liberace got escorted off the stage at the Stadium for playing a song for which he had not cleared copyright. Saddest of all, Tony Hancock, out here to make a TV series about his East Cheam character emigrating to the land of sun and surf, saw the resuts of his first half-dozen shows, went home to his flat at Darling Point, and killed himself.

Whew! What started me on this tack? Sorry, everyone -- I'll try and remember that this is supposed to be a travel forum, not an old fart's reminiscences!

bigarm1,
I saw the show last night.
I didn't enjoy the 1st half, although that might have had something to do with the woman sitting behind me who laughed, very loudly, at almost every line spoken. It is a comedy but not all lines were that funny......My son, daughter-in-law & husband also had similar comments when we were discussing the show afterwards..
The 2nd half was fabulous (and the woman behind was almost silent) so overall the show was great....
If it goes to Sydney, I'll consider seeing it again. :)

Thank you Pauline; spare us from noisy neighbours nearby.

I read a snippet recently about Cate Blanchett, who's appearing on stage in Sydney with Hugo Weaving in 'Hedda Gabler'. Apparently a mobile phone started ringing and a mortified guy in the front row reached into his pocket and in trying to turn it off managed to send it skittering across the stage. Hardly missing a beat, Hugo Weaving picked it up, turned it off and tossed it back to the horrified owner, who spent the rest of the play trying to turn himself into the Invisible Man. After the curtain calls, Cate Blanchett stepped off the stage and gave the sinner a sympathetic pat on the knee before wafting off into the wings. How's that for class?