Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. The Producers
For the few people unaware of the phenomenon of The Producers, creator Mel Brooks (music, lyrics, and book with Thomas Meehan) adapted this musicalwhich won a record 12 Tony Awards in 2001from the Oscar-winning screenplay of his original film from 1968. It's a big, splashy musical that requires numerous standout performers, a chorus that needs stamina to keep up with the singing and dancing, and sumptuous costumes, and Olney's production delivers. To begin with, lead actors Michael Kostroff and Michael Di Liberto take welcome steps out of the long shadows of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as the frantic Broadway producer Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, the repressed accountant who becomes Max's partner in a grand fraud based on staging a glittering musical about Adolf Hitler. Kostroff actually looks a bit like Brooks and he manages to keep his poise as he mines the levels of desperation and dyspepsia. De Liberto, relatively tall and balding, is a hoot with his stiff-legged walk, frozen gaze, and constrained singing voice. Jason Graae oozes undeserved self-confidence as Roger De Bris, the flamboyant director who plays Hitler as if he were Judy Garland, and Stephen F. Schmidt is amusingly rigid as Franz Liebkind, Nazi apologist and pigeon fancier. As Ulla, Jessica Jaros nails both the character's over-the-top physicality and her ingenuousness. Vallee's choreography borrows from Susan Stroman's Broadway originals at timeschorus girls still burst from the filing cabinets at Leo's accounting firm, Max's little old ladies with checks still dance with their walkers, Roger's production team still flounces and posesbut she brings her own (lunatic) vision to some of the major numbers. The ensemble threatens to turn the show into Fiddler on the Roof during "The King of Broadway," and some of Vallee's innovations for "Springtime for Hitler" will blindside audiences (in a good way). The nine-member orchestra keeps up ably. James Fouchard's scenic design is more practical than inspired, but Seth M. Gilbert's costumes pick up the slack with their sparkle, detail, and vivid colors. Even the characters' socks are color coordinated. Olney Theatre Center
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