by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meeghan
Tinkers Farm, director Emma Harley
Stourbridge Town Hall, Wednesday 14th May 2025
As I am sure we are all aware, “The Producers” started life as a cinema film in 1967, produced by the legendary Mel Brooks and starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. It was adapted into a stage musical in 2000, with this in turn leading to a new film version in 2005. It is the tale of a con-artist theatre producer who has long realised he can make more money from a flop than a success (mostly from old ladies by means that we need not go into here). He is joined in his nefarious activities by an accountant who just happens to have had life-long theatrical ambitions.
We open with a backdrop cloth of a cinema (or I suppose we should say “movie theatre” as it’s in New York), with an inset in front containing a couple of doors out from which came the chorus for the opening number.
There were several scenes used for the show and whilst they were all fine in and of themselves, one or two of the scene changes did seem to take a few minutes to action.
Some nice touches – Max’s desk and sofa in his office and the staircase at the back when the leads were visiting their prospective director.
I am always impressed by the detail that goes into what could be passed over and the office set used for “I Wanna be a Producer” comes into this category. Bearing in mind, it’s only used for this one scene there was a lot of thought put into making this an effective backdrop.
In terms of set dressing, one criticism I do have is of the piano used in the rehearsal scenes. What I would suggest is that if your piano does not have working keys, face it upstage so we can’t see your actor just banging away on a wooden board. Speaking of the piano, there were a couple of occasions when the music came on before the actor started “playing” – something else that could have been avoided had the piano had its keys facing upstage.
Another strange (I assume) directoral choice was towards the end when Franz confronts the two leads with a gun which he seems to be waving around aimlessly and random shots coming out not necessary matching the hand action.
On a positive in terms of props, glad to see that the champagne glasses had something in them as one thing I do find irritating is people “drinking” from empty glasses.
Leo’s blue blanket is referred to a couple of times in the dialogue but for some reason this seemed to be represented by a very small handkerchief.
We had a lively overture from the orchestra who were on top form throughout although the levels did seem to be a bit loud during the number “When You’ve Got it, Flaunt it” when it was difficult to hear what was being sung. Normally at Stourbridge Town Hall the music is too loud at the start of the show, so this was different!
There were a couple of times during the musical numbers when cast members seemed to be out of the lit areas and were singing in the dark. Most notably this happened to Max in “I Want to be a Producer” and Ulla in the aforementioned “When You’ve Got it…”
Costumes were very appropriate to the period, although I do have to say that Franz’s “lederhosen” didn’t appear to be very “leder”. Roger’s frock probably needed a bit more colour although it was suitably sparkly.
The two titular producers of the title are the ones that naturally drive the show as I can’t recall a scene without at least one of them in it and here the production was superbly served by the excellent partnership of Daniel Cox as Max and Richard Cooper as Leo.
These two actors really brought out the contrast between the two characters, Daniel as the over-confident and self-interested Max being well placed against Richard’s more subdued performance as the more (initially at least) timid and self-conscious Leo, a character that does come out of his shell as the action progresses.
Daniel’s very powerful performance of “The King of Broadway” was a mesmerising highlight, and the twosome’s duets on the likes of “We Can do it” and “Where Did we go Right” certainly had the audience in the palms of their hands.
Supporting the two leads was a variety of characters which could very much be described as “larger than life”, needing some big performances and my word we definitely got these.
Matthew Morgan gave a suitably over the top showing in his role as the “mad German” Franz, tackling the role with obvious relish and handling his musical numbers with the same enthusiasm.
Tom Bowes and Tyrone Howell made a fine double act as Roger and Carmen. I did feel that Tyrone’s performance may have gone a bit too far (Mr Humphries on speed was one description that came to mind) but this may have been to deliberately contrast with the more restrained Roger.
Rebecca Bate gave us a good comedy performance as the female lead Ulla, managing to maintain the accent for the duration (not easy).
The musical numbers were well choreographed. Productions like this can live or die by their opening number and we had a very lively opening number in “It’s Opening Night”, which firmly set the background to the show.
There was lots of comedy to come from Franz’s German numbers and a shout out here to the grannies’ zimmer frame routine which was an absolute highlight.
But the best reaction naturally came from what is probably the best known song in the production, which is of course “Springtime for Hitler”. This is quite a long song, but at no point did the pace drop and become anything other than a delightful piece of (intentionally) poor taste entertainment.
To summarise, this was a superb evening’s entertainment and even though it is quite a long show, the evening sped along nicely. Great cast, excellent musicians and fantastic staging, what more could you ask for?
Reviewed By – David G
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