Tag Archives: Patrick Marber

THE PRODUCERS

★★★★★

Menier Chocolate Factory

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THE PRODUCERS

Menier Chocolate Factory

★★★★★

THE PRODUCERS

“Its biting, irreverent satire is the most delicious slap in the face you’ll ever experience”

“It is shocking, outrageous and insulting… and I loved every minute”. That is a quote from Mel Brooks’ and Thomas Meehan’s musical, but it could easily be the tagline of my review of Patrick Marber’s revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory. There are a lot of minutes – about one hundred and fifty of them – but each and every one of them is an inglorious joy.

It is extraordinary how it has stood the test of time. Written in 2001, based on Brooks’ 1976 movie, the bounds of good taste are annihilated. It’s a fun mind game to speculate as to whether it would ever get made today. Imagine the pitch. Camp Nazis goose-stepping while randy old widows tap dance with their Zimmer frames. Characters use sex as a way of extorting money. Jokes that rely on caricature, stereotypes and offending Jews and Gays. Pigeons with Swastikas and an abundance of limp-wristed ‘Heil Hitlers’. A curvy secretary who needs her fix of daily sex each morning. And of course, the show-stopping play-within-a-play ‘Springtime for Hitler’ featuring the Führer in gold spandex. Absolutely not! You’d be out on the street at best. In jail at worst.

Yet “The Producers” has not only survived, but it also feels more pertinent and relevant today than ever. Its biting, irreverent satire is the most delicious slap in the face you’ll ever experience. Wrap it up in Paul Farnsworth’s stunning array of costume, Lorin Latarro’s gorgeous choreography and Mel Brooks’ own score and you have the perfect Christmas present. It is thoroughly modern, yet the sense of vaudevillian nostalgia sweeps you off your feet from the opening bars to the final rousing chorus.

THE PRODUCERS

The premise is simple genius. Producer Max Bialystock bankrolls his Broadway flops by seducing rich, little old ladies. One day Leopold ‘Leo’ Bloom, a nervy accountant comes to check on his books but inadvertently hits on the idea that Max could make more money from a colossal failure than a huge hit. Cue the hunt for the worst play ever written, the most lamentable director and incompetent cast. The show will close on opening night and Max and Leo keep the money raised. But… well, you know the rest. You should. I’ve still yet to meet anyone who isn’t familiar with the story.

The show needs a dynamic duo at its heart. And this production beats with the irresistible pairing of Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin as Max and Leo. Nyman is star material from head to toe, full of ironic cynicism and scheming lechery with a taunting twinkle in his eye. Antolin is simply superb as the anxious accountant with dreams of Broadway. They are the oddest couple, yet visually, physically and vocally they are the perfect match. Harry Morrison, as the over-eccentric, Nazi-centric, pickelhaube-wearing writer of ‘Springtime for Hitler’ adds a zillion shades to the word ‘hilarious’, while Trevor Ashley takes ‘camp’ to the highest summits with his glorious portrayal of Roger de Bris, the flamboyant, failing theatre director. Joanna Woodward’s whimsical Swedish secretary adds love interest, sassy sexiness and a touch of tenderness. But we keep coming back to Antolin and Nyman, who steal the show so often they are in as much danger of winding up in jail as their characters.

The musical highlights are many. Antolin’s ‘I Wanna Be A Producer’, Woodward’s belting ‘When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It’ and Morrison’s high-spirited ‘Have You Ever Heard The German Band?’ to name a few. And Nyman’s ‘Betrayed’ during which he brilliantly gives us a speed summary of the show. Not to mention, of course, the ‘Gay Romp with Adolph and Eva’ in which the company, led by Ashley soar way, way over the top with the flamboyantly brazen ‘Springtime For Hitler’.

You really do have to see it to believe it. In fact, shorten that sentence. You really do have to see it! It is selling fast and furiously, but don’t worry too much. This show has ‘West End Transfer’ written all over it. I return to my opening line: “It is shocking, outrageous and insulting… and I loved every minute”. You will too.

 

THE PRODUCERS at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Reviewed on 10th December 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Manuel Harlan

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE CABINET MINISTER | ★★★★ | September 2024
CLOSE UP – THE TWIGGY MUSICAL | ★★★ | September 2023
THE THIRD MAN | ★★★ | June 2023
THE SEX PARTY | ★★★★ | November 2022
LEGACY | ★★★★★ | March 2022
HABEAS CORPUS | ★★★ | December 2021
BRIAN AND ROGER | ★★★★★ | November 2021

THE PRODUCERS

THE PRODUCERS

THE PRODUCERS

THE PRODUCERS

 

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WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK

★★★★

Marylebone Theatre

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WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK at the Marylebone Theatre

★★★★

“this drama is pure, clean, rich with luxuries, well-engineered and superbly constructed”

In this visceral dissection of modern Judaism, what greets us first is designer Anna Fleischle’s super chic compact kitchen island: clean lines, cream with marble tops.

Plenty of space also to host that massive elephant in the room. But, in keeping with the metaphor, we’ll ignore that till later.

First, we’re expecting a dinner party, some light bantz, kosher nibbles, and plenty of nostalgia as two former best friends Debbie (Caroline Catz) and Shoshana (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) – both excellent – reunite after an uneasy separation. Both are burdened with regrets and simmering resentments.

Debbie’s husband and reluctant co-host Phil (Joshua Malina) is not happy. Debbie has an equivocal relationship with her Jewishness and he fears orthodox Shoshana will lure his wife away from her liberal life in Florida.

Shoshana and Yerucham (unexpected scene stealer Simon Yadoo) live in straitened circumstances in Jerusalem with eight – count ’em – eight children, working for God and the Jewish state. One couple has everything, the other couple feels superior.

At the beginning, on some point of etiquette, Shoshana says, “Your house, your rules. We don’t judge.”

And so follows two hours of brutal, hilarious, heart-rending judging, which goes both ways and escalates. Boy, does it escalate.

The play is based on Nathan Englander’s 2012 New Yorker article and the title refers to a game of trust – who would you ask to hide you away should the Nazis come?

The ridiculously talented Patrick Marber came in on an adaptation and the production carries many of his hallmarks, notably the humour, which is quippy and clever. Every cast member – especially Aaron Sorkin favourite Malina – has great comic sensibilities and they land the punchlines every time.

You’re never more than five minutes away from a doozy. Referring to his wife’s self-lacerating fascination with Jewish suffering, Phil calls the kitchen “a holocaust-themed food court”.

And so to the elephant. As director Marber and Englander were working on the adaptation, October 7 happened, the Hamas atrocity provoking Israel’s scorched earth reaction.

In response, Marber and Englander set up a couple of well-drilled, well-balanced examinations, the Floridians horrified by the slaughter, the Israelis talking about their right to exist.

It is a necessary addition, but uneasy. Throughout the play, the two couples mine their own – often moving – experiences to make their arguments, so a set piece debate about the rights and wrongs of a Middle East war arrives like a gatecrasher.

To introduce more division, we have Debbie and Phil’s slouchy, cynical son Trevor – a sharp cameo by Gabriel Howell. Something of a stoner and activist, his challenging of convention is so great he breaks the fourth wall to keep us in the loop, at one point urging the foursome to see if they can’t get through the next scene without fighting.

His point is perhaps the most telling. While the secular Jews and the Hasidic couple are taking lumps out of each other, indulging in the vanity of small differences, the world is burning. His generation is doomed while the adults in the room do nothing.

“We pray,” says pompous Yerucham, as a counter punch.

Like the kitchen, this drama is pure, clean, rich with luxuries, well-engineered and superbly constructed. Four heavyweights are on good form and take on a difficult theme with deft and precision. Also, did I mention, very, very funny.

Mazel tov, brilliant is what it is.


WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK at the Marylebone Theatre

Reviewed on 14th October 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Mark Senior

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR | ★★★★ | May 2024
THE DREAM OF A RIDICULOUS MAN | ★★★★ | March 2024
A SHERLOCK CAROL | ★★★★ | November 2023
THE DRY HOUSE | ★★½ | April 2023

WHAT WE TALK

WHAT WE TALK

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