Review: 'Producers' a hit at the Chan

Chanhassen Dinner Theatre recently has favored newer titles in selecting musicals for its main stage. "Cats" was cute. "Grease," with its 1950s kitsch, seemed a throwback. "Joseph" was a brilliant excuse to put some irresistible pop tunes on stage. But with the "The Producers" -- Mel Brooks in extremis -- Chanhassen jumps feet first into modern irony. Never has the theater challenged its prime-rib and walleye-filet audiences with this much ribald humor and political incorrectness. It's about two shysters who foist off a Broadway show -- make that "a gay romp" -- about Adolf Hitler. If that makes you queasy, you might head home after dessert. If it sounds funny, it is.

The show opened Friday night with a cast that has no qualms about playing neo-Nazis, dopey dames and bitchy queens.

"The Producers," which won a record 12 Tony Awards, is based on Brooks' 1968 movie about crooked producers who try to engineer the greatest flop in show-biz history and then abscond with the capital they've raised. Their search for the "worst play ever written" results in "Springtime for Hitler." A director who makes his first appearance onstage in an evening gown is chosen, and it seems this scheme can't miss. To call this a well-made musical would be a stretch. To call it raucous fun, entertaining and deliciously irreverent is more to the point.

Jay Albright plays Max Bialystock, the Broadway producer who, as the show opens, has just endured another flop -- "Funny Boy," a musical based on "Hamlet." This production takes a few scenes to find its legs, Albright included, but then he's off and running with a deadpan wit and a willingness to go over the top when necessary. "Betrayed," his 11 o'clock number, leaves us breathless with its stamina and commitment. Robb McKindles carries the tentative mien of Leo Bloom, Max's accountant, with a winning naivete.

While Albright and McKindles drive the plot, it's the wild outliers who make this show pop. Zoe Pappas is like a premium bucket of chicken -- all legs and breasts -- as the Swedish vixen Ulla. Pappas does everything right with a great voice, fine dancing chops and comic instincts. David Brinkley plays director Roger DeBris and seems quite comfortable in the evening gown and later a skirt and fishnets. Mark King wiggles through Carmen Ghia, Roger's fastidious and mincing partner. Scott Blackburn takes a full run at the whacked-out playwright of "Springtime for Hitler," Franz Liebkind.

Director Michael Brindisi is so very good at weaving scenes together, and the production numbers, with Tamara Kangas Erickson's choreography, light up the stage. Costume designer Rich Hamson pulls off tricks that are simply too good to be missed.

Remember, it's a spoof. Don't take it seriously.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299