Musical: From Broadway to Hollywood
Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake

This screen adaptation of Mel Brooks' hit Broadway musical was perhaps the most entertaining movie I saw in 2005. I even liked it better than the 1968 original that starred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder.

Some reviewers have criticized stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick for overacting their roles on screen. One of these writers said that the performers were "playing to the upper balcony".

Perhaps these critics should take another look at the 1968 version, because if Lane and Broderick are playing to the upper balcony, then Mostel and Wilder are certainly playing to the theater across the street.

The plot of the musical, which involves two uscrupulous Broadway producers who discover that it's more profitable to produce a flop instead of a hit, follows the storyline of the original almost to the letter...with one key exception.

It eliminates the character of the hippie actor, played in 1968 by Dick Shawn, and divides that character's function between Will Ferrell, who plays the Nazi playwright, and Gary Beach, cast as the gay theatre director.

Beach is a delight in the "Springtime For Hitler" production number and Ferrell steals every scene in which he appears.

Also in the cast are Uma Thurman, as the producer's sexy secretary and Roger Bart, who like Beach and the two stars, appeared in the Broadway production.

Among the DVD extras are an audio commentary by director Susan Stroman, a hilarious gag reel and deleted scenes, including one song, "King of Broadway" that should NOT have been cut. It would have been the best production number in the movie.

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)

I love this film. I grew up, although I am a child of the 90's, on the old movie. I think that Nathan Lane is extremely similar to Zero Mostel. Uma Therman also does a good job as Ula. Now, and again I LOVE this film, I think Matthew Broderick is trying too hard to be like Gene Wilder. He goes in and out from being the absolutely perfect insane man that is Wilder, to be the more clean cut man that is himself.
The music in this film is amazing!! I want to keep replaying the musical scenes!
I love this film! and I love Mel Brooks. I love his Young Frankenstein, on Broadway, which stars Robert Bart (who I love) who plays Roger's partner in this film.
Watch this movie!!!

Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) is a loser as a Broadway producer, but his accountant Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick) helps him come with up with a plan to produce the worst show ever on the Great White Way, one they know will close after only one performance, and then abscond with the money they raised. The show they're sure will bomb is called "Springtime for Hitler."

Based on Mel Brooks' Broadway musical that was based on his non-musical movie, this is pretty much a filmed stage play starring the play's two leads, Lane and Broderick. I like Nathan Lane, but this is too much of a good thing; he's too loud, too mincing, and too broad and is exhausting to watch. Broderick is full of wide-eyed, Ferris Bueller-charm and likeability, but he is tiresome after a while, too. Will Farrell was completely awful as the Nazi-loving playwright and really ruined the show for me. All the dialogue is SHOUTED as if they're still trying to reach the last row of the balcony and they all seem so enamored of themselves and their material that it's off-putting.

I liked the original Producers back in 1968, which was nutty and wacky and funny; this time around, the movie is too big for the big screen. I grew weary and wanted it to end. I can certainly see how charming Lane and Broderick would be on the stage, especially if you're seated 100 feet from them. They're adorable and talented and the story is funny; it just doesn't work on the screen.

I have been a longtime fan of the original Mel Brooks movie starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, so it was with some interest that I went to see a summer stock version of the Broadway show here in Maine. It was at The Ogunquit PLayhouse. The two leads had been in road show versions of the play and were outstanding as was the rest of the cast. It was a total hoot.

Out of interest, I decided to purchase the movie version of the Broadway show to compare it with what I had just seen and while it is hard to top Nathan Lane in anything, as a whole I preferred seeing it as a play rather than a movie of the same.

That being said, the play is as entertaining a time as you can spend in the theater and I thought it was an improvement on the original movie. The songs are toe tappers for the most part, the expansion of the parts of the director and the author of "Springtime for Hitler" were welcome as was the expanded role of the Swedish bombshell.

Mel Brooks zany mind works as well on stage as in the movies and this is a DVD you really want to have in your archives.

PS: The out takes included with the DVD are hilarious and there is a section where the director comments throughout the movie on various aspects of what you are watching, giving inside tidbits about the scenes and the filming, which by themselves are worth the price of the DVD.

I borrowed this title from the library. I wasn't expecting much but I was laughing from start to finish. The concept of Nathan Lane as a straight man was funny in and of itself. I really enjoyed the musical numbers. I'm going to buy my own personal copy of this movie.