Live on Stage, “The Producers” Is Great Fun

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Staff Writer

Several theatre majors from NDSU and MSUM again have leading roles in the latest production of the Crimson Creek Players in Grand Forks. “The Producers” opened Tuesday and continues nightly at 7:30 pm through Saturday at the historic Empire Theatre in downtown Grand Forks.  It also runs again next Tuesday through Saturday, August 10-14. Tickets are $18 or $15 for students, senior citizens, and military personnel.

An enthusiastic cast, strong singing voices, and top-notch dancing combine in the Players’ performance of “The Producers.” The hit Mel Brooks musical comedy depicts a has-been producer plotting with his accountant to stage a Broadway flop, so they will be rich from all the left-over investors’ money after it closes. Of course, things do not go as planned. The show is a cheerfully vulgar satire of the New York theatre world, skewering everyone from playwrights and directors, to actors and producers, to critics and audiences.

“The Producers” was the first film Brooks wrote and directed, and that 1968 classic starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder remains one of the three or four best from his long movie career. Perhaps for that reason, decades later he expanded it into an actual Broadway musical, and was able to make the dialogue much raunchier than permissible at the time of the original film, besides adding many more songs to flesh out the characters. As typical with Brooks’ work, he makes a great effort to include something to offend everyone, but his outrageous humor makes the characters so likeable that most audiences find it irresistible.

No one will ever be able to duplicate the characterizations of Mostel and Wilder, although Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick made an admirable attempt in the recent Broadway version and the new movie adaptation of the stage adaptation. A few elements do work better in the film version(s), while a few other things work better on stage, especially the interaction between cast and audience. Crimson Creek’s show was produced by Ben Klipfel, directed by Chris Berg, with music direction by Matt Strand and Amanda Hill, and choreography by Laura Dvorak-Berry.

In the Crimson Creek production, Paul Vonasek may look just a bit young but he does a fine job of making the role of scheming producer Max Bialystock his own. His energy is unrelenting and his timing is impeccable. One of the show’s high points is his number “Betrayed,” where he gives a one-man reprise of the entire show up to then. Matt Berdahl is also very good as Bialystock’s meek sidekick, Leo Bloom. And Haley Anne Boyd makes an effective Ulla, the sexy Swedish secretary. Daniel Dutot gleefully takes over the part of Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind, and Justin Heim and Daniel Walstad pull out all the stops as Carmen Ghia and Roger DeBris.

The ensemble of singers, dancers, showgirls, and bit characters all throw themselves into their parts, and during the large production numbers there is something worth watching going on everywhere you look. While the play takes a little while to build up momentum, by the middle of the first act it pretty much keeps moving with very few slow spots. The scene design, perhaps for budget reasons, looks a bit sparse by Crimson Creek standards, but the only real disappointment of the show is the use of a prerecorded orchestra accompaniment instead of live musicians. Still, the cast works well with it, and their consistent energy is what makes the show well worth seeing.

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If You Go

What: “The Producers”
Where: Empire Theatre, Grand Forks
When: Through Aug 14
Info: 701.777.4090