The Producers

Wow! It's a return to the grand old movie musicals of the 1940s and 1950s with the fabulous staging and choreography of Susan Stroman and the hilarious dialogue of Mel Brooks in the new movie release of The Producers.

My actor friend Eric and I caught the matinee screening yesterday and it was a wonderful, light-hearted experience. We laughed, we smiled, we wanted to applaud at the end of some of the big production numbers, and after the conclusion I wanted to spin and dance my way out of the theater.

The movie screenplay is pretty faithful to the musical script, and I think they did a better job of translating the musical to the screen than producers for the recent movies of Rent and The Phantom of the Opera. The potentially offensive Negro jokes have been excised with no loss, and it seemed like they cut out a song or two (I'm not one of those people who's memorized the musical soundtrack), but the movie does not suffer.

Casting was good, too. Of course, the Lane-Broderick duo was carried forward. Those of you who are Nathan Lane fans will be happy to know that Nathan is still Nathan. He's a funny, physical actor, but I always think he's Nathan Lane playing Nathan Lane, regardless of the play, musical, tv show, or movie he's doing. And Matthew Broderick—OMG, Ferris Bueller has gotten old and wrinkled!—was a treat with his way-better-than-expected dancing skills. Neither Lane nor Broderick are singers, but they both get through the songs without it being too painful.

A lot of people who've already seen the movie complained about Uma Thurman as Ulla, but I thought she did a fine job in the role. Naturally she's not the woman who did the part in the musical's cast recording, but she does her own interpretation and it was appropriate and entertaining. Will Ferrell surprised me with his performance as Franz Liebkind, and I think this is the first time I've ever liked Ferrell in a movie role. And I can't say enough about John Barrowman, the tenor stormtrooper who fabulously sings "Springtime for Hitler" while looking the epitome of the Aryan youth.

The dance numbers were great, and they did several of those formations with the camera directly overhead like used to be in the old movie musicals. I kept finding myself in wonderment with a stupid grin on my face during most of the big songs, and they made an interesting choice to have big musical endings with a moment of silence (just like they would have done on stage), instead of transitioning immediately back into the dialogue and story, so it felt funny not being able to applaud at the end—it was set up for applause!

Eric thought he recognized someone in the cast with whom he'd been on stage before, so we stayed to watch all the credits (yeah, it turned out it was Eric's former colleague), and we were two of the only five people in the theater to see the little ending vignette with Mel Brooks which played at the very very end of the credits.

So, go see the movie! It's great entertainment.