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The Producers

Wed, 4 June 2003, 02:28 pm
rick8 posts in thread
Could anyone tell me if Mel Brook's "The Producers" currently playing on Broadway is bound for Melbourne next March 2004?
I saw the opening preview night on Broadway back in April 2001 which starred Nathan Lane & Mathew Broderick it was sensational...A fantastic show worthy of the huge standing ovation it received.
regards
Who is ear marked for the rolls if it is comming to Australia?
What about auditions :-)

regards
Rick

Re: The Producers

Wed, 4 June 2003, 04:59 pm
I'm very interested to see if this show does go overseas, not just Australia, as well.

Despite it having been on Broadway for a good couple of years now, I've not heard much about a production launch on the West End, which means that an Australian launch is probably even further off.

Which makes me wonder, is Mel Brooks going to let it go up anywhere but America? Is such an American musical in every sense of the term - not just the accents, but the structure, the musical styles, the humour and above all, the voice types required (that uber-twang/belt that you just don't get anywhere but Broadway, or after years of training from a Broadway specialist) - going work anywhere else?

I can't help but think of two immensely disappointing cast recordings I have which are great examples of why 'Producers' shouldn't be done outside America: the West End 'City of Angels' recording I have is jarring to listen to - terrible accent coaching and wildly inappropriate voice types (which definitely come from the British emotional-content musical school which, for me anyway, sit badly with the Cy Coleman jazz-belt requirements); and the Broadway recording of 'Me and My Girl' - brassy belters trying to sing what is basically lyrical English music hall, and some severely dodgy 'Allo-'allo-'allo-Dick-Van-Dyke-
School-of-Cockney accent work (the wonderful Robert Linsay, the definitive 'Bill', is the exception on this recording, of course).

There is, however, 'Witches of Eastwick' - an extremely exciting collabloration between West End and Broadway. But then the musical isn't quite so definitively one or the other.

I've often thought about this - how much you want to do it aside (I'd love to play Ulla, but I ain't a six foot Nordic blonde, so I'm not kidding myself that it's going to happen), would it work anywhere but America?

I posit this purely as a topic of discussion...

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Thread (8 posts)

The Producersrick4 June 2003
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