'The Producers' delivers your money's worth

W. Noel Johnston

For the Tribune

There are many ways to judge the quality of any musical theatre production: acting, singing, dancing, lighting, costumes, sets. But, perhaps the best way to appraise a show as silly, inane, insane, irreverent, crazy, lunatic, and hopelessly clichéd as "The Producer" is to answer one question: "Did the audience get its money's worth?" And at the Saturday matinee performance, the answer was a resounding "Yes." Despite some technical flubs, including a balky main drape that refused to open at the beginning of Act II, Mel Brooks' "The Producers" enchanted a good-sized audience with crisp singing, snappy dancing, clever costumes, and enough schlock and schtick to send us all home "schatistifed."

Jesse Coleman's Max was a delight. Taking on the con man role made famous on Broadway by the inimitable Nathan Lane, Coleman (the understudy who made self-deprecating fun of his status during his highlight number "Betrayed") bullied and brawled his way through the high energy songs and scenes of seduction of rich old ladies, and lust for the statuesque and talented Elizabeth Pawlowski (Ulla). Pawlowski's "When You Got It, Flaunt It" song and dance wowed not only Max and his reluctant partner in crime, Leo Bloom, performed by Austin Owen, but knocked out the crowd as well. Owen himself possesses a fine voice, and he can hoof it, too. His poignant love song "That Face" with Pawlowski, and the plaintive duet "Til Him" with Coleman, were two of the show's highlights.

Jamie Westberry (another understudy) showed off a beautiful baritone and impeccable comic timing as Franz Leiber, the writer of the show within the show, "Springtime for Hitler." Westberry's Teutonic talents were brilliantly on display in the comic German folk song, "Haben Sie Gehort Das Deustche Band?" The shenanigans of John West and Britt Hancock as the flamingly gay director Roger De Bris and his "pal" Carmen Ghia were a treat to watch. They sashayed and flitted hilariously all over the stage, particularly in "Make It Gay," and later in "Springtime for Hitler."

I don't know that anybody leaves the theatre after "The Producers" thinking deep thoughts about politics or religion or philosophy. But, then again, we're not supposed to. This is Mel Brooks, after all. And if Brooks has done nothing else for audiences of his TV, films and theatre productions, he's made us laugh. "The Producers" reaps every ear of stereotypical corn it can out of blondes, gays, Germans, Nazis, actors, Irish policemen, nerds, con men, old ladies, and even jailbirds, but Brooks' book and lyrics are never mean and never nasty. If Greeley playgoers learned anything this afternoon, it might well be that understudies at this level are really, really good, and that laughing out loud for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon is well worth being inside on a gorgeous mid-November day.

Noel Johnston recently retired after 37 years of teaching public school theatre and English, the last 26 at Greeley Central. He will be inducted into the Colorado High School Theatre Hall-of-Fame in December.

The Producers

NETworks Presentations, LLC Presentation

Book, music and lyrics by Mel Brooks

Original direction and choreography by Susan Stroman