Broadway Phenomenon The Producers Faces West End Critics

The Producers has traveled across the pond with original Broadway star Nathan Lane who stepped in for Richard Dreyfuss in the middle of rehearsals and London fixture Lee Evans playing misguided producers Bialystock and Bloom. The show has been a huge hit all across America, receiving rave reviews everywhere it goes. But will it fair as well with the Brits?

Here is a sampling of what the critics had to say:

Benedict Nightingale of The London Times: "With Lee Evans playing a gormless little Faust to Lane's unstoppably energetic Mephistopheles, the musical had me in stitches from its opening in Times Square… The numbers Brooks has added to his original score aren't Sondheim or Lloyd Webber, but they're simple, hummable and, above all, funny… With Lane losing kilos in sweat, and Evans bashfully wincing and goofily playing the nerd, the acting is broader than I recall it being on Broadway. But then this is a Broadway musical whose aim is simultaneously to celebrate and send up the Great White Way in all its opportunism, dodginess and lunatic excess. Brooks and his director, Susan Stroman, triumphantly manage both."

Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard: "This Mel Brooks show, that makes a mockery of a singing, dancing Hitler and his love of kitsch in the shape of Busby Berkeley chorus girls and goose-stepping soldiers, has driven Broadway audiences wild with pleasure. It now hits the West End with the force of a revelation, not to mention Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, who strike up a razzle-dazzle comic partnership… The Producers is no monument to bad taste, unless you take exception to Hitler being treated as a comic turn or to a chorus of old ladies, in need of zimmer frames, confessing they are wild for sex. The twists and turns of the fantastic, surrealistically-tilted narrative generate rare amusement. Otherwise Brooks' lyrics boast hardly a single rude word. Stylistically the music harks back to the age of Oklahoma. The songs, aside from the chauvinistic strutting of Springtime For Hitler, are notable for humour and Susan Stroman's dynamic choreography, not their tunes. The novelty of the show, mainly based on Brooks' cult film of the same name, springs from the ingenuity of its plot and plotting."

Charles Spencer of The Telegraph: "From the opening number, the audience rides a tidal wave of pure pleasure and after three delirious hours one is left stunned by a combination of unstoppable laughter and sheer happiness. Brooks based this wonderful stage musical on his own Sixties movie. It is three times funnier, and 10 times warmer than the original--bigger, better, bolder and brassier, and not so much generous with the jokes as downright profligate with them… It is impossible to over-praise Lane's performance as the louche, lubricious, yet curiously lovable producer Max Bialystock. His comic timing is a joy forever, and he proves a master not just of the double take, but of the triple and quadruple take as well. He sings superbly, performs a succession of inspired sight gags, and generates a warmth and energy that powers the show with irresistible momentum. Lee Evans proves a terrific foil as his neurotic, gangly partner in crime, Leo Bloom…"

Michael Billington of The Guardian: "Three-and-a-half years after its Broadway premiere, Mel Brooks's mythic musical finally makes it to Drury Lane with its original star, Nathan Lane; and happily it offers exactly the same intoxicating, time-suspending and slightly guilty pleasure as it did in New York. What is its secret? At its simplest, it puts the comedy back into musical comedy… In some respects the show has broadened since Broadway. My single favourite line comes when the nervous Leo tells his accountant boss 'I'm not going to the toilet, I'm going into showbusiness,' a line which Lee Evans now needlessly signals and underscores. But Evans delightfully persuades you that there is an element of cherishable innocence about this showbiz-struck number-cruncher. Leigh Zimmerman is also funny-sexy as the pneumatic, long-legged Swede, Nicolas Colicos makes the closet-Nazi author truly alarming. The Producers has taken a long time to reach us. But it's a welcome guest and looks set for a durable stay."