THE PRODUCERS at Celebration Theatre

Photo by Matthew Brian Denman

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw

I’ve always admired Celebration Theatre for its expert staging of technically demanding plays in tiny venues. The company’s musical productions — last year’s Cabaret, the Boy from Oz (2016)and Women of Brewster Place, the Musical (2010) — have been especially impressive.

Now comes The Producers, Mel Brooks’s wacky stereotype-laden show about an unethical Broadway producer and his unconventional effort to score big bucks by producing a musical romp about Adolf Hitler. Directed by Michael Matthews (who also directed Cabaret and Brewster Place), it features the same technical excellence as these prior musicals and is unquestionably entertaining. But several of the lead performances are off the mark, and the result is a good production that could have been better.
Read more…

Now running through August 12